85 
him anemetic. One was procured, which vomited him freely, but not- 
withstanding, violent symptoms set in, and we were called on to see him. 
“On entering his room, we found him stretched on his back, his coun- 
tenance expressive of the most painful suffering and distress, his frame 
shaken by frequent convulsive spasms, his limbs rigidly extended, and 
his head slightly bent backwards. . His face was of a.livid red, and 
covered with a profuse sweat; his eyes were sunken, and moved with 
a rapid motion ; his mouth was covered with saliva, which he ejected 
by spasmodic jerks, strongly reminding me of a case of hydrophobia 
which I had seen some time before. Hisrespiration was quick and diffi- 
cult, and attended with great pain in the precordial region ; skin warm, 
and covered with a profuse clammy sweat, and he had copious watery 
discharges from his bowels. His intellect was clear and collected, and his 
feelings were so morbidly acute that the slightest touch appeared to 
aggravate his sufferings, and to bring on a spasm. On this account we 
could not correctly ascertain the state of his pulse. 
“‘Tgnorant of any antidote likely to relieve him, and pressed by the 
urgency of the case, Dr. Byrne, acting on the suggestion of Mr. Haugh- 
ton’s paper (read before a meeting of the Royal Irish Academy, Nov. 29, 
1856), took a cigar from a gentleman present, and infused it in half a 
pint of water. 
“One hour and fifteen minutes after he had taken the poison, we 
gave him the first dose of the tobacco infusion, which he swallowed with 
difficulty. We continued it in table-spoonful doses at intervals of five 
minutes, until he had taken half the quantity infused, before we had 
noticed a favourable change. Then the muscles became relaxed, .the 
spasms less severe, and the intervals between them longer; and so con- 
scious was the patient of relief, that he constantly called for the tobacco 
juice when he found the paroxysm approaching. This encouraged us 
to persevere with the infusion, prolonging the intervals between each 
dose, as the frequency of the spasms abated ; until, finally, after twelve 
hours, they disappeared, leaving him in a state of fearful nervous pros- 
tration, from which he recovered in a few days, under a careful tonic 
treatment. 
“In the quantity of infusion administered, we used one ounce and 
two drachms of dry tobacco leaves, including the cigar—a quantity 
which no healthy condition of system could stand; but the urgency of 
this case demanded it, and the result justified it, and at the same time 
afforded us another illustration of the counteracting influence of poisons, 
and tended in some way to establish the correctness of the conclusions 
at which the Rey. Mr. Haughton had arrived by his experiments. 
“From a single instance like this, I should be far from recommend- 
ing nicotine as an antidote; but I trust that the publication of the case 
may attract the attention of others, who will test the subject with due 
care, and give the result of their experience to the world. 
** St. Louis, Missourt, United States.” 
Mr. Haughton then made the following statement to the Academy :— 
The success of the antidote suggested by me for strychnia poisoning in 
