RICINE. 191 



shown by the necroses of the cells. The intestinal ecchymoses, 

 &c., can also be accounted for in the same way, since STEPANOFF l 

 has shown that ricine is excreted into the intestine, and GUSH NY 

 (loc. cit.) has found that in frogs ricine causes a discharge of 

 blood containing the poison into the stomach. 



Ricine has no action upon the isolated heart of the frog or 

 upon the nerves, while it has a slight paralysing effect upon the 

 muscle (STILLMARK). 



The action of ricine upon the connective tissue of the eye is 

 characteristic. It produces severe conjunctivitis similar to that 

 caused by abrine (vide infra), which also frequently leads to 

 permanent derangement of the cornea. Panophthalmitis is also 

 not uncommon. 



The Action of Ricine upon the Blood, Ricine has a very 

 characteristic action upon the red blood-corpuscles as was first 

 noticed by ROBERT and STILLMARK (loc. cit.) and this can be 

 observed both in fresh blood and in the case of erythrocytes 

 that have been repeatedly washed. The erythrocytes agglutinate 

 under the influence of ricine, and fall to the bottom as a coherent 

 flocculent mass resembling clotted blood, so that the supernatant 

 serum is clear. 



According to KoBERT, 2 a combination takes place between the 

 agglutinine and the arterine of the blood, and the clumping 

 together is due to the fact that this compound is viscous. The 

 action is very intense, and can be recognised even in a dilution 

 of 1 : 600,000. This agglutination has absolutely nothing to do 

 with the haemoglobin, since it also occurs in the case of the 

 dissolved blood-corpuscles i.e., with the stroma by itself. The 

 serum appears to contain substances that have a restrictive 

 influence upon the action of the ricine ; at least it acts more 

 energetically in diluted blood. 



This ricine coagulation is quite distinct from the true coagu- 

 lation of the blood. Any possibility of its being a simple 

 coagulation is indeed excluded by the fact that it can be 

 observed in defibrinated blood ; but apart from this, the process, 

 as such, can be distinguished from coagulation by the fact that 

 it is not influenced by sodium chloride, potassium nitrite, and 

 potassium chlorate. Fibrin coagulation is even retarded by ricine. 

 Moreover, the so-called ricine fibrin i.e., the colourless washed 

 ricine precipitate is absolutely different from true fibrin. 



1 Stepanoff, "Etudes sur la ricine et 1'antiricine," Ann. Past., x., 663 > 

 1896. 



2 Robert, "Ueber vegetabilische Blutagglutinine, " Sitzungsber. d. naturf. 

 Oes. t Rostock, 1900, xxv. [5] (reprint). 



