ACTION OF VEGETASLE POISONS. SQi 



the command of my muscles, and I thought that I v/as 

 about to fail. However, these sensiitions were momentary. 

 and I experienced no inconvenience whatever afterward. 



1 afterward applied a irxore minute quantity of the essen- 

 tial oil to my tongue several times, without experiencing 

 from it any disagreeable effects ; but on applying a larger 

 quantity, [ was affected with the same momentary sensations 

 as in the former instance, and there was a recurrence of 

 them in three or four seconds after the first attack had sub- 

 "Sided. 



From the instantaneousness, with which the effects are A-cts tbroqj;1i 

 ,,,„.. i-i t ,• , the medium ot 



produced ; and from its acting more speedily wnen applied the nerves, 



to the tongue, than when injected into the intestine, though 

 the latter presents a better absorbing surface ; we may con- 

 clude, that this poison acts on the brain through the medium 

 of the nerve's, without being absorbed into the circulation. 



JSxperiment with the Juice of the Leaves of Aconite. 



Exp. 7. An ounce of this juice was injected into the rec- Effectsof the 

 turn of a cat. Three minutes afterward he voided what ap- juice of 

 peared to be nearly the whole of the injection; he t^^tj"^ £x"erirnentr« 

 stood for some minutes perfectly motionless, with his legs 

 drawn together ; at the end of nine minutes, from the time 

 of the injection, he retched and vomited; then attempted 

 t6 walk, but faltered and fell at every step, as if from gid- 

 diness. At the end of thirteen minutes, he lay on one side 

 insensible, motionless, except some slight convulsive mo- 

 tions of the limbs. The respiration became slow and la- 

 boured ; and at forty-seven minutes from the time of the 

 injection, he was apparently dead. One minute and a half 

 afterward, the heart was found contracting regularly one 

 hundred times in a minute. 



It appears from this experiment, that the juice of aco- it ^ct la * 

 nite, when injected into the intestine, occasions death by timilar way- 

 destroying the functions of the brain. From the analogy 

 of other poisons, it is rendered probable, that it acts on the 

 brain through the medium of the nerves, without being ab- 

 sorbed into the circulation. This opinion is confirmed by 

 the following circumstance; if a small quantity of the leaf Effect! of 

 of aconite is chewed, it occasions a remarkable sense of jj!J^'"^ '^'^ 



numbness 



