42 VEGETABLE POISOKS. 



continued perfectly well, and the ligature was removed. I watched 

 him for three quarters of an hour afterwards, but there were nc* 

 symptoms of his being affected by the poison. On the following 

 day the rabbit died ; but this I attribute to the injury done to the 

 limb and sciatic nerve by the ligature, as there was the appearance 

 of inflammation in the parts in the neighbourhood of the ligature. 



These three experiments were made with the greatest care. 

 From the mode in which the poison was applied, from the quantity 

 employed, and from my prior experience, I should have entertained 

 not the smallest doubt of the poison taking effect in every instance 

 in less than twenty minutes, if no ligature had been applied. I 

 two of the three, the quantity of woorara was more than had been 

 used in any former experiments. 



I have not judged it necessary to make any more experiments, 

 with the ligature on the limb, because the numerous experiments of 

 the Abbe Fontana on the ticunas, coincide in their results with 

 those which have just been detailed, and fully establish the efficacy 

 of the ligature in preventing the action of the poison. It is not to 

 be wondered at, that the ligature should sometimes fail in its effects, 

 since these must evidently depend on the degree in which the circu- 

 lation is obstructed, and on the length of time during which the 

 obstruction is continued. 



There can be little doubt that the woorara affects the brain, by 

 passing into the circulation through the divided vessels. It is pro. 

 bable that it does not produce its effects until it enters the substance 

 of the brain, along with the blood, in which it is dissolved; nor will 

 the experiments of the Abbe Fontana, in which he found the ticunas 

 produce almost instant death when injected into the jugular vein of 

 a rabbit, be found to militate against this conclusion, when we con- 

 sider how short is the distance which, in so small an animal, the 

 blood has to pass from the jugular vein to the carotid artery, and 

 the great rapidity of the circulation; since in a rabbit under the 

 influence of terror, during such an experiment, the heart cannot be 

 supposed to act so seldom as three times in a second. 



I have made no experiment to ascertain through what medium 

 other poisons, when applied to wounds, affect the vital organs ; but 

 from analogy we may suppose that they enter the circulation through 

 the divided blood-vessels. 



The facts already related led me to conclude that alcohol, the 



