326 ACTION OF VEGETABLE POISONS. 



nute, circulating durk coloured blood, and it continued io 

 contract for several minutes afterward. On dissection no 

 preternatural appearances were observed in the brain ; nor 

 was there any other appearance in the limb, than would 

 have arisen from an ordinary wound, 

 ^periment20. Exp. 20. I made a wound in the side of a guinea pig, 



» and introduced into it about two grains of the woorara in 



powder. At the end of twenty-five minutes, symptoms 

 took place very similar to those, which occurred in the last 

 experiment, and in thirteen minutes more the animal was 

 apparently dead ; but the heart continued to contract one 

 hundred and eight times in a minute, and by means of 

 artficial respiration the circulation was kept up for more 

 than twenty minutes. 



It acts 6n the The results of other experiments, which I have made 

 with the woorara, were similar to those just described. 

 The heart continued to act after apparent death, and the 

 circulation might be kept up by means of artificial respira- 

 tion. It is evident, that this poison acts in some way or 

 other on the brain, and that the cessation of the func- 

 tions of this organ is the immediate cause of death. 



Best applied I found in these experiments, that the best mode of ap« 



dissolved in plying the woorara is when it is dissolved in water to the 

 consistence of a thin paste. I first made the wound, and 

 then smeared the poison over it with the end of the scalpel. 

 I found that the animal was more speedily and certainly 

 affected, if there Avas some haemorrhage; unless the 

 haemorrhage was very copious, when it produced an op- 

 posite effect, by washing the poison away from the wound. 

 When the poison was applied in large quantity, it some- 

 times began to act in six or seven minutes. Never more 

 than half an hour elapsed from the time of the poison 

 being inserted, to that of the animal being affected, except 

 in one instance, where a ligature was applied on the limb, 



Probably weak which will be mentioned afterward. The woorara, which 



trom age. j gjjjployed, had been preserved for some years, which will 



account for its having been less active, than it has been 



described to be by those, who had witnessed its effects 



when in a recent state. 



'Experiment 



