ACTION ON STOMACH AND INTESTINES. 495 



disposal at the time, and consequently contained a quantity of 

 it in suspension, which would not have been the case it' the in- 

 fusion had been made from a coarsely pounded bark. 



In order to ascertain whether the vomiting and purging were 

 due to the local action of the drug on the stomach and intes- 

 tines, or to its action on the nervous system after its absorption 

 into tlie blood, a comparison was made between the effects of 

 the poison when introduced into the stomach and when injected 

 under the skin. Our experiments show that whereas vomiting 

 was invariably produced by the casca, in whatever manner 

 introduced into the system, purging only occurred when the 

 poison was given by the mouth, and was never observed after 

 subcutaneous injection. The purgative action is therefore due 

 to the local action of the drug on the intestines. 



The following is a brief account of two experiments we made 

 in investigating the action of the drug when injected into the 

 stomach. 



Experiment XXI A. — May 10. 



Ten c.c. of an infusion of the watery extract of the bark, 

 with the dregs which were deposited when the infusion cooled, 

 were injected into the stomach of a large cat. It appeared 

 quite well for 40 mirmtes and then vomited. Within the next 

 two hours and a half it vomited five times. A little more than 

 five hours after the exhibition of the drug it passed some solid 

 fieces with great forcing, and from that time recovered. 



Experiment XXI B.— May 10. 



Ten and a half c.c. of a cold aqueous infusion of the pounded 

 bark, containing numerous fine particles in suspension, were 

 injected into the stomach of a small ill-nourished cat. Vomit- 

 ing came on 35 minutes afterwards, and free purging an hour 

 and a half after the injection. During the rest of that day and 

 on the next it was very feeble, but showed no special symptoms, 

 and it died quietly on the moi^ning of May 12. 



