4-2 



minute. In four hours the pulse had fallen to 120, but still inter- 

 mitted. In seven hours the dog had a natural motion. Its pulse 

 had returned to the natural standard of 140 in a minute, and he ap- 

 peared perfectly recovered from the effects of the experiment. 



After three days, sixty drops of the same infusion were given to 

 the same dog to swallow. In two hours he became languid ; his 

 pulse wiry and weak, but still 140 in a minute. In four hours the 

 languor was less, the pulse natural. In eight hours he had a natural 

 motion, and in eleven hours appeared perfectly recovered from this 

 dose. 



The effects of this medicine upon the dog and upon Sir Everard 

 Home, as far as they were sensible, were very similar, but differed 

 in degree. Sir Everard, in consequence of an attack of the gout, 

 took sixty drops of the Eau medicinale. In two hours he became hot 

 and thirsty. In three hours the pain became tolerable while the limb 

 was at rest. In seven hours he had a confined motion from the 

 bowels. There was a degree of nausea. The pulse, which is natu- 

 rally 80, was lowered to 60 in a minute, with occasional intermis- 

 sions. In ten hours little remained except some degree of languor, 

 with the pulse at 70, which on the following morning was restored 

 to its natural standard, with removal of all symptoms of gout. 



If these observations shall be confirmed, says the author, we must 

 conclude that the different kinds of substances which produce specific 

 diseases are first carried into the circulation, in the same manner as 

 mineral and animal poisons ; and that the medicines by which they 

 are acted upon go through the same course before they produce their 

 beneficial effects. 



An Appendix to a Paper on the Effects of the Colchicum autumnale 

 on Gout. By Sir Everard Home, Bart. V.P.R.S. Read April 25, 

 1816. [Phil. Trans. 1816, p. 262.] 



In the paper on this subject, lately read to the Society, the author 

 hoped to establish two facts which seemed to him of primary im- 

 portance ; first, that this medicine can be received into the circula- 

 tion without permanent mischief ; and secondly, that its beneficial 

 effects upon gout are produced through that medium ; and hence 

 the sudden relief it gives can, he thinks, be readily explained. 



The criterion by which he judges of the influence of the medicine 

 is the pulse, which he has found to be invariably diminished ten or 

 twenty beats in about twelve hours after it is taken ; and since this 

 effect is also produced when the same medicine is injected into a 

 vein, he was satisfied that in the former instance the lowering of 

 the pulse depends upon its arrival into the circulation, and not upon 

 the state of the stomach. 



The author has since been induced to try whether the effects of a 

 larger quantity injected into the veins would also correspond with 

 those produced by an overdose taken into the stomach. 



One hundred and sixty drops of the infusion of colchicum before 



