356 OKf OPIUM. 



Effect of Exp. 12*. In another experiment of the same kind, 



Uvingsysten* *^^ animal was immediately and generally convulsed, and 

 was dead in one minute. When the heart was exposed 

 it was found contracting 42 times in a minute. The irrita- 

 bility of this organ was not lost until three hours after. 



Exp. 13 +. A portion of the cranium of a rabbit was 

 elevated in like manner, and forty drops injected on the 

 surface of the brain. At first the anim.al appeared lethargic 

 and tottered. After ten minutes it was violently con., 

 vulsed, and in the space of one minute and an half more, 

 was dead. When the thorax was opened the heart was 

 found contracting with considerable force. 



The irritability was exhausted in all the muscles sub- 

 ■ifftrvient to voluntary motion ; they were repeatedly ir- 

 ritated, but in vain. 



In these experiments, it is clear, that opium has a very 

 powerful and instantaneous action upon the brain, that it 

 ' is diffused over the whole nervous system, evinced both by 

 -the general convulsions preceding death, and the total 

 consumption of irritability in the voluntary muscles, and 

 which was equally as complete as if the opium had been 

 applied immediately to the parts themselves. 



It was next examined, if when opium is introduced into 

 some other organ, its effects are extended by the nervous 

 system to distant parts, 



Exp. 14 J. All the parts as near as possible to the pelvif 

 of a frog, on both sides, were divided, leaving the is- 

 chiatic nerves uninjured. These were afterwards secluded 

 from the air, by the divided edges of the skin being drawn 

 together by slender threads. Three frogs . were experi- 

 mented upon. 



Twenty drops of solution were injected into the stomach 

 of one frog. The animal lived four hours after. 



On examination after death, the irritability \yas destroy- 

 ed in all the voluntary muscles. 



Into another frog thirty drops were injected": After six- 

 teen minutes the animal was convulsed; the extremities 

 below the knee which had no communication, with the 



* Vide p. 50. Exp. 31. t Vide p; 51. Exp. 3:1. 

 tVidelnaug. Dissert, p. 59, Exp. 38-"39. 



yuperiojr 



