AN IN-CONTACT IRRITANT 629 



and other cold-blooded animals, are stated to be less sus- 

 ceptible to the drug, but are very susceptible to an oxida- 

 tion product, oxydicolchicine. It appears probable that 

 colchicine is oxidised in the blood and tissues of mammals, 

 and then produces its effects. In the frog, oxydicolchicine 

 causes prolongation of muscular contractions in a similar 

 way to veratrine. 



As antidotes the stomach must be emptied ; full doses of 

 tannin form an insoluble compound with the colchicine ; 

 white of egg, oil, or mucilage should be freely given, and 

 stimulants if required. 



MEDICINAL USES. Colchicum has little to recommend it 

 as a therapeutic agent. The fresh corm given in large doses 

 to fasting dogs, and its expulsion by vomiting prevented, 

 increased secretion of bile, and also purged powerfully. 

 But action on the liver and gastro-intestinal membrane is 

 more safely effected by other medicines. Small doses, 

 conjoined with alkalies or salines, are occasionally given to 

 horses in rheumatism and influenza, especially in subacute 

 cases in which the inflammation appears to move from joint 

 to joint. Foreign authorities prescribe it in dropsy, hoven, 

 and rheumatism. Williams used it, conjoined with potas- 

 sium iodide, in pleurisy, in rheumatic pericarditis, and 

 sometimes in pneumonia when the kidneys were torpid. 

 It is excreted in great part by the kidneys, and when not 

 quickly removed by the bowels it increases, alike in health 

 and disease, both the organic and inorganic constituents of 

 the urine. 



DOSES, etc. Of the powdered corm or seed as a diuretic for 

 horses, 3ss. to 3J- ; for cattle, 3J- to 3ij- > f r sheep, grs. x. 

 to grs. xxv. ; for dogs and pigs, gr. i. to grs. vi., given with 

 salines. A convenient solution is made with one part of 

 colchicum, six or eight of vinegar, and a little spirit. Col- 

 chicine dissolved in 100 parts of water and glycerin may be 

 given hypodermically or intratraeheally in doses of gr. J 

 to grs. ij. to horses, and gr. y^j to ^ to dogs. The tinc- 

 ture is made with four ounces of colchicum seeds to the 

 pint of alcohol (45 per cent.). 



