ANTIDOTES 219 



precipitates); fatty oils, antidotes for poisoning by alkalies and 

 acids (formation of soap); starch, antidote against iodine (blue 

 color), and animal charcoal, antidote for alkaloids and metals. 



3. The physiological or dynamic antidotes are not directed 

 against the poison itself but against its action (antagonists), and 

 are administered for the purpose of producing an action which 

 will counteract the effect of the poison (stimulation — ^paralysis). 

 A distinction must be made between a single, or simple, and a 

 multiple, or mutual antagonism. The antagonism is single when 

 the one poison only suppresses but does not reverse the action of 

 the other; it is multiple when a reciprocal or mutual suppression 

 takes place. We also speak of a true (direct) and an apparent 

 antagonism, depending upon whether both poisons act upon one 

 and the same organ (nervous system, muscles, glands) or upon 

 different organs; curare, for instance, is only an indirect antag- 

 onist of strychnine because it does not act upon the spinal cord, 

 as does strychnine, but upon the peripheral nerves of the muscles. 

 The occurrence of a true multiple antagonism is in general question- 

 able. A paralyzing antidote like atropine can, it is true, overcome 

 the stimulant action of another poison, e.g., the action of eserine 

 upon the oculomotor nerve (mydriasis, myosis), but on the other 

 hand a paralysis of the oculomotor nerve (mydriasis) produced by 

 atropine cannot be overcome by eserine (myotic). The important 

 physiological antidotes are: (a) Atropine and hyoscine (scopo- 

 lamine) as antidotes against morphine, chloroform and chloral 

 hydrate. The antagonism is multiple but in part indirect. The 

 paral3i;ic action of morphine on the brain is overcome directly by 

 the psychic stimulation produced by the atropine; on the other 

 hand, the paralytic effect of the morphine on the heart is overcome 

 by the stimulant action of the atropine indirectly, the atropine 

 stimulating the nerve centres of the heart, while morphine para- 

 lyzes the heart muscle itself, (b) Atropine as an antidote against 

 pilocarpine, eserine, arecoline, muscarine and nicotine poisoning, 

 (c) Potassium bromide, chloral hydrate, chloroform and ether as 

 antidotes against the tetanies, strychnine and picrotoxin. (d) Amyl 

 nitrite as an antagonist against the vasoconstrictors, suprarenin 



