On (he Organs of Absorption. 133 



thf reason, why the transfusion of the arterial blood of 

 animals poisoned by the strycknos is nut followed with 

 bad effects. 



This circumstance did not take place with the venous 

 blood, which returns from ihe part where the poison has 

 been inlioduced. After the experiments reported in the 

 memoir upon the upa^i, and in this, it is impossible to 

 doubt, that this blood does not tra.isport tb.e poison to the 

 lungs. Ii is very probai)le that, introduced in the circula- 

 tory system of another animal, it would produce effects 

 fimilar to those whicli it caused upon the animal on which 

 the inoculation of the poison was made. 



A small piece of wood covered with two grains oi upas 

 tleute was stuck into the thick p;irt of the left side of the 

 nose of a dog. Three minutes after this introdLiction, we 

 passed into the venous system of anollicr doo, the blood of 

 the jutTiilar vein of the side where the introduction of the 

 poison had been made. The transfusion commenced about 

 one minute befoie the first signs of the upas; it did not 

 cease until the death of the animal who experienced it. No 

 appearance of irritation of the spinal marrow was perceived 

 in the animal who received so great a quantity of poisoned 

 blood. 



Although these experiments were repeated several limes, 

 wiih variations in the njode of in'roduciug the poison, we 

 never could perceive in the healthy anuTial, who had suf- 

 fered the transfui^ions of poisoned blood, any thing which 

 resemb'ed the effects of the strycknos. 



Results so p )siiive, appear to us of a nature to warrant 

 the conclusion, that the venous blood of animals poisoned 

 by the upas, the 'mix vomica, and the bean of St. Ignatius, 

 is no more capable, than the arterial blood, of producing 

 upon another animal the effects which it will cause upon 

 the animal from which it was taken. 



If there still remained any doubts, they would be removed 

 by the following experinjent, which was repealed several 

 times. 



As ill the experiments above related, we separated, from 

 the body, llie thigh of an animal, isolating as before the 

 crural artery and vein ; we introduced the poison into the 

 separated foot, and transfused the blood of the crural veirt 

 iiuo the jugidar vein of a sound animal. 'I'he passage of 

 the l)|()0(i from one animal to the other lasted more than 

 ten nunuics, a time more than sulHcient ior the production 

 «f the effects of the upas. But no hign of the action of 

 this poison was [H.rcc>^ed, either in iht' one or m the other 

 1 3 animal. 



