COLCHICUM 607 



and paralyzed. Full medicinal doses lower the force and 

 frequency of the pulse. 



Nervous System. — Toxic quantities depress and paralyze 

 the motor cells of the inferior cornua in the spinal cord, 

 and also depress the sensory nerves. The motor nerves and 

 muscles are unaffected. 



Kidrveys and Elimination. — It is doubtful whether col- 

 chicum exerts any decided or uniform action on the kidneys. 

 Experiments relating; to this matter are perpiexingly con- 

 flicting. It is stated by many authors that the excretion of 

 both the organic and inorganic solids in the urine is 

 increased ; that of urea more than uric acid. 



Toxicology. — Colchicum is a very poisonous drug. Acci- 

 dental lethal poisoning occasionally occurs among herbivora 

 from eating meadow saffron at pasture, or in hay. In such 

 cases it is naturally impossible to estimate the quantity of 

 the plant ingested. Two and one-half drachms of the wine 

 of the root, and one-half grain of the alkaloid, have proved 

 fatal to man. Two drachms of the coim have killed a dog, 

 and one-tenth of a grain of colchicine has destroyed a cat. 

 The symptoms of poisoning comprise : anorexia, nausea, 

 dulness, salivation, violent vomiting (in carnivora), purging, 

 at first watery, then mucous and often bloody, and accom- 

 panied by great tenesmus, tympanites, and colic. There are 

 often such nervous symptoms as tremors, stupor, coma, and 

 paralysis. The animal becomes very weak, the respiration 

 is slow and feeble, the pulse rapid and imperceptible, the 

 skin is cold and covered with a clammy sweat, and death 

 occurs in collapse following severe gastro-enteritis. After 

 the injection of large doses of colchicine, increasing the 

 amount does not aggravate the symptoms. 



.Post Mortem Apjpearances. — The mucous membrane of 

 the stomach and intestines is swollen, congested, and eroded. 

 Sometimes free blood is found within their lumen. There 

 is also acute hyperaemia of the kidneys. 



Treatment. — This consists in the use of the stomach 

 pump, emetics, and cathartics, unless there has been free 



