PHYSIOLOGY. 



679 



the breath of many patients who are suffering 

 from the disease called melancholia. Dr. Rich- 

 ardson has also shown that lactic acid, diffused 

 through the body by the blood, acts as a direct 

 irritant upon the lining membrane of the heart, 

 and all the fibro-serous membranes of the body, 

 so that a synthesis of heart-disease and rheu- 

 matism can be established by means of it. It 

 is also the most copious product thrown out in 

 rheumatic fever; and considerable evidence is 

 collected to indicate that this acid, the product 

 of a fermentative change going on in the body 

 during acute rheumatism, is the cause of the 

 secondary structural affections which so fre- 

 quently follow that disease. The breath of 

 diabetic patients is characterized by an odor 

 of acetone, which may be likened to a brewery 

 smell ; and it is believed that the symptoms 

 originate in the decomposition of the diabetic 

 sugar which is in the body, producing acetone, 

 a volatile ethereal fluid which has been discov- 

 ered in the blood and secretions of certain af- 

 fected persons. 



Charles Ludeking, of St. Louis, having ob- 

 tained reactions for chloroform in the viscera 

 of a murdered man twelve days after death, 

 made experiments upon dogs for the purpose 

 of determining how long evident traces of that 

 drug would remain in the body. He deduced 

 the conclusions that by the process of decom- 

 position no substances are generated which 

 could vitiate the tests for chloroform by the 

 Ragsky method ; and that chloroform, when 

 it has caused death by inhalation, can with 

 certainty be detected in the body four weeks 

 after death, and, notwithstanding its volatility, 

 is certainly retained in the viscera in large 

 amount during this time. The persistency of 

 the substance is explained by the observation 

 of Dubois, that the vapor of chloroform pene- 

 trates into the interior of the tissues, and be- 

 comes substituted for normal water. This is 

 not a phenomenon of desiccation or osmose, but 

 results from the play of a true affinity, by which 

 the protoplasm absorbs the vapor of the anaes- 

 theticwhich replaces acertainquantity of water. 

 The powerful preservative qualities of chloro- 

 form are also, probably, a factor in the matter. 



Drs. S. Weir Mitchell and Reichert have made 

 careful physiological analyses of the proteids 

 which have been determined to be the active 

 principle of the venoms of snakes. The ven- 

 oms closely resemble the salivary secretions of 

 other vertebrates ; and their active principle, 

 which can be maintained in the dried state or 

 in such preserving fluids as glycerine and alco- 

 hol, is contained in the fluid part of the venom 

 only. This active principle is divisible into 

 globulines and peptones, of which the former 

 may consist of several distinct principles. If 

 taken into the stomach during the intervals of 

 digestion the poisons may prove fatal, whereas 

 during digestion they are rendered harmless. 

 The chief local antidotes are permanganate of 

 potash, ferric chloride, and tincture of iodine. 

 The venom has a powerful effect upon the liv- 



ing tissue, on which it induces more rapid 

 nervous changes than any other known or- 

 ganic substance. It renders the blood incapa- 

 ble of coagulation, and exerts a local effect on 

 the capillaries, so that extravasation occurs 

 sometimes into the substance of organs. The 

 effects upon the respiratory and nervous sys- 

 tems, and on blood-pressure, depend upon an- 

 tagonistic factors. Death may occur through 

 the paralysis of the respiratory centers, or car- 

 diac paralysis, or haemorrhage in the medulla, 

 or from the widespread destruction of the red 

 blood-corpuscles. The authors conclude that, 

 because of the proteid nature of the venom and 

 its close relation in composition to the blood, 

 it is almost futile to look for a chemical anti- 

 dote to it for what would destroy the poison 

 would have a similar action on the blood itself. 

 A physiological antagonist, rather than a chem- 

 ical antidote, should be sought for. 



Dr. Dudley Buxton describes the effects of 

 the inhalation of nitrous oxide on the mam- 

 malian organism as: 1, a condition of anes- 

 thesia ; 2, an emotional state, provoking a sen- 

 sation of exhilaration ; 3, modifications of the 

 respiratory, and 4, of the circulatory systems ; 

 and 5, muscular movements, which may be 

 classed as rigidity and jactitation. The anaes- 

 thesia produced by nitrous oxide is not depend- 

 ent upon analgesia, or loss of sensation of 

 painful impressions of the sensory end-organs, 

 such as is produced by cocaine, etc., or upon 

 failure of the conducting sensory nerves, for 

 sensation is retained until the perceptive pow- 

 ers themselves cease to receive ; moreover, 

 there is immediately anterior to the loss of 

 consciousness a hypereesthetic stage, whence 

 it may be concluded that the nerve-centers are 

 acted upon. The heart's action appears to be 

 but little interfered with. The dose of nitrous 

 oxide required to produce insensibility varies 

 considerably in different persons ; and this 

 fact supports the view that a specific action is 

 exerted upon the nerve- centers. 



Considerable additions have been made to 

 our knowledge of the chemical products of the 

 action of bacteria upon the animal body, called 

 ptomaines. The composition of the best known 

 of them, cadaverine, is shown by Dr. Laden- 

 burg to be identical with artificially prepared 

 penta-methylene-diamine. Dr. Bocklish has 

 published the results of his researches upon 

 the products of the action of Tinkler's bacillus, 

 Vibrio proteus, upon sterilized flesh. They 

 show that this bacillus decomposes flesh with 

 the formation of the alkaloid cadaverine, 

 which is non-poisonous, and ammonia. But 

 in repeating his experiments in presence of the 

 ordinary putrefactive germs in addition to the 

 Finkler bacilli, the author made the remark- 

 able discovery that an entirely different base, 

 methyl-guanidine, of intensely poisonous prop- 

 erties, was the chief product. Hence the symp- 

 toms of particular diseases may be due to the 

 poisonous alkaloids formed by the joint action 

 of specific bacilli and ordinary putrefaction 



