POISONS. 219 
poisoning in the higher animals. Death, however, 
is always in the fully expanded form. 
It seems desirable to supplement these remarks 
with a few additional ones on the effects of this 
poison on the naked-eyed Medusze. In the case of 
Sarsia the symptoms of strychnia poisoning are not 
well marked, from the fact that in this species 
convulsions always take the form of locomotor 
contractions. The symptoms, however, are in some 
respects anomalous. They are as follows. First 
of all the swimming motions become considerably 
accelerated, periods of quiescence intervening be- 
tween abnormally active bouts of swimming. 
By-and-by a state of continuous quiescence comes 
on, during which the animal is not responsive to 
tentacular irritation, but remains so to direct 
muscular irritation, giving one response to each 
direct stimulus. The tentacles and manubrium are 
much relaxed. In a sea-water solution just strong 
enough to taste bitter, this phase may continue for 
hours ; in fact, till a certain opalescence of the con- 
tractile tissues—which it is a property of strychnia, 
as of most other reagents, to produce—has ad- 
vanced so far as to place the tissues beyond recovery. 
If the exposure to such a solution has not been very 
prolonged, recovery of the animal in normal water 
is rapid. In a specimen exposed for two and a half 
hours to such a solution, recovery began in half an 
hour after restoration to normal water, but was never 
complete. In all cases, if the poisoning is allowed 
to pass beyond the stage at which response to direct 
muscular irritation ceases, the animal is dead. 
