474 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1731. 



tion without intermission, or closing of the mouth. At other times there was 

 near the space of a minute between two inspirations. After this he was seized 

 with a trembling in his limbs, and in about -2- of an hour from his taking the 

 last oz. he died without any struggling, with his tail extended. 



There were several other experiments made of the same kind, by some 

 gentlemen of the profession here, which corresponded exactly with the forego- 

 ing, excepting this one circumstance, that they were of opinion, that this 

 poison occasioned an inflammation in the stomach and guts. 



Towards clearing this dispute, Dr. M. who thought otherwise, put together 

 the following hints, from which it appears that the fact is not as they imagined, 

 and that though we find on an animal being killed by this poison, the veins 

 greatly distended with blood, yet there is not any inflammation produced by it. 



Perhaps nothing can illustrate this matter better, than the analogy which 

 may be observed between the convulsions occasioned by the epilepsy, and those 

 which i^re the effect of laurel-water. For instance, in the epilepsy, the body is 

 universally convulsed, especially the muscles of the neck, the tongue, the 

 lower jaw, and those of the arms. 



The effect of these convulsions is this: the heart beats with unusual violence 

 and frequency ; the necessary consequence of which is, that the blood will be 

 thrown in greater plenty from the arteries into the veins. But because the 

 muscles compress the veins more than the arteries, their systole enabling them 

 to overcome that pressure ; therefore the blood, which is still pushed forward 

 by the systole of the heart into the veins, will be retained there by the said 

 pressure of the muscles, and will return in a very small quantity to the heart. 



For instance, the abdominal muscles being convulsed, press the stomach and 

 intestines on the vena cava ascendens, and likewise on the vena portas ; by 

 which means the blood, returning from the lower extremities, is retained in 

 those vessels. Accordingly we see the visible and immediate effects of this 

 pressure are the forcing out the contents of the bladder and intestines, and very 

 frequently the profluvium seminis. 



In like manner, the pressure of the muscles of die neck, tongue, and lower 

 jaw, on the jugular veins and their branches, will not suffer the blood to return 

 to the heart by the vena cava descendens. To this we may add the pressure of 

 the diapliragm and ribs on the lungs ; by which means the trunks of the vena 

 cava ascendens and descendens are compressed at their insertion into the heart. 

 Hence follows that frightful blackness of the face during the paroxysm, and the 

 prodigious swelling of the veins of the head, especially the temporal. 



The necessary consequence of all this must be, that if the convulsion lasts 

 long enough, the man must die, on account of the blood being thrown out of 



