ON THE PHYSIOLOGICAL: ACTION OF THE METHYL COMPOUNDS. 185 
frog 2 remained relaxed and living, but paralyzed. Both frogs died on the 
following day, retaining their symptoms to the end. 
It was clear in these two ‘cases that the iodide of ethyl exerted an anti- 
dotal action to the poison, but as the animals died with different classes of 
symptoms, a further research was made. 
A large frog was injected with 10 minims of the iodide simply. It seemed 
quite unaffected for some hours, but on the following day it died, presenting 
symptoms of general paralysis similar to the frog that had received the 
five-minim injection after the strychnia. Thus the question had to be solved 
whether any precise formula of neutralization could be arrived at. In one 
experiment I had not used enough iodide to overcome the spasm, in another 
I had thrown in so much of the iodide as to more than neutralize, and, in 
fact, to kill by the iodide itself. Can, then, any known quantities for exact 
neutralization be arrived at in a living body ? 
I believe they can, but up to this time I have failed, after the most careful 
study, to find the quantity. I can certainly prolong life twenty-four and 
even twenty-eight hours after a terribly intense dose of strychnia, but ulti- 
mately there is death. 
Iodide of methyl acts in precisely a similar way as the iodide of ethyl, as 
do also the bromides of methyl and ethyl. 
Another series of experiments were at the same time made with nicotin. 
On October the 26th, 1867, two minims of nicotin were injected subcu- 
taneously into a large rabbit. The animal died in twenty-five seconds. 
A second rabbit was injected with two minims of nicotin and two of iodide 
of ethyl. It died also in twenty-five seconds. 
A third rabbit was injected with one minim of nicotin and ten of the 
iodide. It died in one minute and fifty-one seconds. 
A guineapig and a rabbit were treated with ten minims of the iodide 
only. They remained well for several hours, but both died next day. 
Again, varied experiments were carried out to get at the neutralizing pro- 
portions of these two agents, and guineapigs were made to replace the rab- 
bits; but the point was never reached. The effect of a large dose of nicotin 
was modified, 7, e. the convulsive action was prevented, but in the end there 
was death, 
In my Report at the Meeting at Birmingham, I suggested that possibly it 
would be practicable to make new chemical compounds, substitution-com- 
pounds, in the living body. While I have been thinking and trying to work 
out this idea, Drs. Fraser and Crum Brown have been conducting the most 
singularly beautiful series of research bearing on the same question, but 
earried on differently. These experimentalists have shown conclusively that 
an intensely poisonous dose of strychnia can be rendered inert by first con- 
yerting the alkaloid into a methyl-iodide. 
This is a wonderful adyance. But the question remains, can the same 
thing be done within the living body? Can a new chemical compound be 
produced there? When we consider the circumstances under which the sub- 
stitution-compounds are made in the laboratory, I confess I am hardly pre- 
pared to see that they can be formed in the body. On the other hand, we 
have now evidence that to a certain extent iodide of methyl and ethyl are 
directly antidotal to strychnia or nicotin. 
In the body, however, there are two distinct actions to be considered, the 
physiological action and the chemical. The antidotal effects of the methyl- 
iodide might, therefore, be due, not to chemical union or substitution, but to 
physiological neutralization. 
