262 THE DISEASES OP THE DOG. 



blood serum should be given. Oases of convulsions from 

 ordinary pathological conditions and various other diseases 

 are liable to be confused with irritant poisoning in hasty 

 diagnosis. 



Strychnia when used as a poison may be determined 

 by the tetanic convulsions to which it gives rise, the 

 straightness of the back, elevation of the tail, rigidity of 

 the limbs, and sardonic grin on the countenance, the 

 symptoms appearing suddenly. Valenti, of Kino, saved 

 twelve dogs after overdose of strychnia by means of 

 monobromide of camphor in small doses (4 — 6 grammes) 

 given by the stomach. The action of the antidote is sure 

 and rapid in reducing the force and frequency of the 

 spasms, which become clonic instead of tonic, the hypos- 

 thenic action of the bromide mitigating the reflex ac- 

 tivity of the strychnia. The bromide acts on the sympa- 

 thetic nerve inducing myosis and cardiac paralysis, and, 

 if an overdose be given, it and the strychnia together 

 produce death by syncope. If the latter only causes 

 death the cardiac impulses continue post mortem ; this is 

 not so when the bromide is the cause of fatality (' Veter- 

 inary Journal,' iii, p. 51). Young animals are less sus- 

 ceptible to the action of strychnine than adults, herbivora 

 than carnivora. Feser, of Munich, finds that of the 1 per 

 cent, solution of nitrate of strychnia one milligramme sub- 

 cutaneously, and five to six times that amount by the mouth 

 per kilogramme of the weight of the animal may be given 

 as a medicinal dose. In the ' Veterinary Journal,' vol. xi,* 

 Butters, of Norwich, relates a case of successful treatment 

 of strychnia poisoning in a retriever bitch. She was kept 

 under the influence of chloroform for one hour, then 

 given extract of belladonna gr. xij in solution, Tinct. 

 Opii 3J, and received chloroform, with occasional intervals 

 and doses of ten minims of hydrocyanic acid occasionally, 

 for two hours, when the belladonna and opium was re- 



* In a case of strychnia poisoning recorded in vol. vi of the ' Veterinary 

 Journal,' chloroform relieved the tetanic convulsions, being given five or six 

 times in three hours. No spasms occurred after this, and the next day the 

 dog seemed quite well though dull and stupid. 



