138 ADDITIONAL NOTES. 



solution injected into the cellular membrane 

 occasions stupefaction and death. I presume 

 that the opium is digested by the stomach of 

 the rabbit, although it is not so by that of a 

 carnivorous animal. 



Some poisoned arrows from the Andaman Is- 

 lands, with which I was furnished by the late Mr. 

 Wilkins, were found to act precisely in the same 

 manner as the woorara ; and I conclude that all 

 the more concentrated and more powerful nar- 

 cotic poisons have a like operation, and destroy 

 life by paralysing the muscles of respiration, 

 without immediately affecting the action of the 

 heart. But it is otherwise when, either from 

 the more feeble action of the poison, or from it 

 being more diluted, or more gradually adminis- 

 tered, the period of death is protracted. In the 

 case of a patient, who survived the being poi- 

 soned by the tincture of opium for more than 

 twenty-four hours, the whole of the vital powers 

 seemed gradually to become exhausted ; and from 

 the failure of the pulse, it appeared that the 

 contractions of the heart must have ceased nearly 

 at the same time with those of the muscles of 

 respiration. 



The phenomena of death from drowning, stran- 

 gulation, or confinement in an atmosphere in 

 which there is too large a proportion of carbonic 

 acid, are very similar to those produced by a 

 narcotic poison. The heart continues to act after 

 the animal is apparently dead, and he may be 

 restored to life, if artificial respiration be had 



