266 TARTAR EMETIC TOXIC EFFECTS 



GENERAL ACTIONS. Tartar emetic in substance or in con- 

 centrated solution acts as an irritant upon the alimentary 

 mucous membrane. In the stomach it is partly decomposed 

 by the acid of the gastric juice, soluble chlorides of antimony 

 and potassium being formed (Kauf mann) . It probably com- 

 bines with albumin. Horses and cattle when receiving even 

 poisonous doses, do not vomit, and doses of one to four 

 drachms sometimes given medicinally do not produce the 

 nausea and depression which are the notable results of 

 medicinal doses in man, dogs, cats, or pigs. Dogs receiving 

 two to four grains are nauseated, and vomiting occurs 

 usually within fifteen minutes. Emesis depends upon 

 irritation both of the stomach and vomiting centre, but more 

 especially of the former. Reflexly, from the stomach, from 

 the effects of the emesis, as well as by acting directly on the 

 heart and vessels, it produces in men and carnivora cardiac 

 and vascular depression, with lowered blood pressure ; it 

 slightly increases but subsequently diminishes the number 

 of the respirations ; reduces temperature, relaxes voluntary 

 and involuntary muscles ; and increases secretion from the 

 skin, bronchial and gastro-intestinal membranes . Poisonous 

 doses cause purging and gastro-enteritis, and when their 

 action is very violent, after slightly exciting, they paralyse 

 both the motor and sensory tracts of the spinal cord. In 

 many of its actions it resembles phosphorus and arsenic 

 notably in arresting the formation of glycogen, and in caus- 

 ing fatty degeneration of the liver and other organs. It is 

 eliminated in the mucus of the stomach and bowels, and 

 also in the bile and urine. It increases the excretion of urea. 

 As with arsenic, animals receiving small doses acquire a 

 condition of tolerance, and with impunity take doses which 

 would otherwise prove dangerous. 



THE Toxic EFFECTS, like the general actions, are less 

 marked in herbivora than in dogs, cats, and pigs, which are 

 affected much in the same way as men. According to Kauf- 

 mann, dogs are poisoned by three to six grains. But these 

 and even larger doses are apt to be speedily ejected by vomit- 

 ing if the dogs are left to themselves. If the oesophagus, 

 however, be tied so as to prevent vomiting, such doses, and 

 sometimes even one grain, cause nausea, accelerated and 



