DOSES AND ADMINISTRATION 553 



for horses is from fl\v. to H\xx. ; for cattle, from fl|x. to 

 Tl\xxx. ; for sheep, Tl\ij. or H|iij. ; and for dogs, from 

 H\ss. to TT(j. Either tincture should be given in several 

 ounces of cold water. The effects of full doses sometimes 

 continue for twelve or fifteen hours. Small and repeated 

 doses are preferable to larger doses at longer intervals. 

 The first may be a full dose, and may be followed by five or 

 six half-doses, repeated, as the case appears to require, at 

 intervals of from half an hour to two hours. The antipyretic 

 effects which should thus be produced are usually kept up 

 by salines and other treatment. Used hypodermically, less 

 than half the above quantities suffice. Walley taught that 

 the activity of aconite is increased by giving it in combina- 

 tion with alkaline carbonates. The liniment of aconite 

 (1 in 1|), made with powdered root, camphor, and rectified 

 spirit, is occasionally used. It should not be applied to a 

 wound. 



Aconitine is one of the most potent of sedative poisons. 

 Headland records that ^ troth f a grain in solution in water 

 suffices to destroy a mouse ; xio^h f a g ram kills a small bird 

 after a few minutes, and 5 l th almost instantaneously ; 

 ^o-th to T \)th kills cats, the latter quantity in twenty minutes 

 or half an hour. Half a grain, given to a shepherd's dog 

 weighing 30 Ibs., began to operate in three or four minutes, 

 and proved fatal in sixty-five minutes. The toxic dose for 

 an adult man is ^yth grain ; for the horse gr. Jth, and for the 

 dog, gr. ^th. Mavor and Burness subcutaneously injected 

 over the scapula of a horse ^\yth grain, and noted in a few 

 minutes champing of the teeth, salivation, fits of retching, 

 and reduced number and force of the pulsations. 



F. Smith and C. Rutherford made four experiments on 

 healthy horses with aconitine. One grain of the alkaloid 

 was dissolved in one ounce of water, and 10 minims, con- 

 taining ^th grain, were injected hypodermically into the 

 anterior region of the chest of two geldings. Within ten 

 minutes there were produced biting and licking at the site of 

 puncture, persistent shaking of the head, yawning, pawing ; 

 increase of pulse in one subject to the number of ten beats, 

 in the other of two beats ; no change of temperature 

 occurred. The effects disappeared in one and a half hours. 



