TOXIC EFFECTS 477 



F. Smith and C. Rutherford made a series of experiments 

 with alkaloids at Aldershot, and furnished the following 

 notes : A bay gelding had three grains morphine injected 

 hypodermically, and in fifteen minutes had shaking of the 

 head, which continued more or less for a couple of hours ; 

 but there were no other appreciable symptoms. A bay 

 gelding, fed on hay and grass, with a pulse of 38, respirations 

 12, and pupil half an inch vertical diameter, had five grains 

 morphine injected. In forty minutes the pulse was 42, 

 respiration and pupils unchanged. He walked occasionally 

 round his box, threw back his ears ; a patch of perspiration 

 appeared on the breast, around the seat of injection ; the 

 head was frequently shaken ; the animal was easily startled. 

 The effects wore off in about an hour and a half. 



In experiments with morphine and atropine injected 

 together, C. Rutherford records that the horses were more 

 readily excited than when morphine was given alone. 

 They moved almost constantly round the box, had rhyth- 

 mical movements of the head, and dilated pupils. Morphine 

 five grains, injected with fifteen minims atropine solution, 

 caused, in fifteen minutes, uneasiness, walking round the 

 box, throwing up and shaking of the head, slight pawing, 

 dilated pupils, nervousness, and excitability. These symp- 

 toms continued for one and a half hours when they gradually 

 abated ; but the animal for six hours still remained easily 

 excited, and a ' little on the move.' 



Twelve grains morphine acetate, dissolved in a pint of 

 water and swallowed by a horse, had no effect beyond 

 increasing the pulsations eight beats. One hundred grains 

 of the acetate, swallowed in solution, caused convulsions and 

 killed the horse in three hours (Wood). Kaufmann states 

 that forty-five to seventy-five grains of the hydrochloride, 

 given hypodermically, poison horses. 



Ruminants are not so susceptible, especially to opiates 

 given by the mouth. Cows and sheep, to which Dun gave 

 respectively an ounce and four drachms of opium, exhibited 

 dryness of the mouth, occasional nausea and restlessness, 

 acceleration, and subsequently slight slowing of the pulse. 

 Frohner hypodermically injected a cow with fifteen grains 

 morphine hydrochloride ; she lowed hoarsely, became ex- 



