OF THE CALABAR BEAN. 717 



tissue. From the following experiment it is proved that prolonged digestion with 

 gastric juice does not impair the energy of Calabar bean : — 



Experiment I. 



A gastric fistula was formed in a healthy dog, and, some days afterwards, and while the 

 animal was in good health, 500 grains of gastric juice were withdrawn from the stomach. Four 

 hundred grains of this were mixed with half a grain of extract of physostigma, received in a flask 

 with an arrangement to impede evaporation, and placed in a water-oven at a temperature of 

 98° F. The digestion was continued for twenty-four hours, when the fluid was placed in a 

 capsule and evaporated at 85° F. The resulting extract was finely pulverised, heated with 

 alcohol of 85 per cent., filtered, and again evaporated to dryness. Contact with distilled water 

 removed an acid fluid, which was made alkaline by excess of magnesia, and agitated in a bottle 

 with chloroform. The chloroformic solution was removed by a separating funnel and evapo- 

 rated, and the resulting brown extract was suspended in distilled water. A drop of this was 

 applied to the conjunctiva over the right eyeball of a rabbit, whose pupil, before the experiment, 

 measured |f ths x \§ ths of an inch. In eight minutes, the pupil was ^ths x Jf ths ; in fifteen 

 minutes, s^ ths x /oths ; in twenty minutes, yV^hs x /g-ths, and it continued in this contracted 

 condition for many hours. The remainder of the fluid was injected under the skin of a young 

 pigeon, and caused its death in eight minutes. 



Several small pieces of hard-boiled white of egg were placed in a flask with the remaining 

 100 grains of gastric juice, and digested under exactly the same conditions, and at the same 

 time, as the extract of physostigma. They were found to be completely dissolved in less than ten 

 hours. There could, therefore, be no doubt as to the activity of the gastric juice which had been 

 employed. 



This merely confirms the result before obtained, of fatal effects following the 

 introduction of the poison by the digestive system. 



I believe that Brinton first demonstrated that a poison which had been 

 administered by the blood may be excreted by the stomach and intestines.* This 

 was proved with tartar emetic; and, more recently, Taylor has published 

 evidence showing that arsenic also may appear in the stomach although it had 

 not been administered by the alimentary canal. f I took an opportunity of 

 examining if a similar event occurs in poisoning with physostigma. 



Experiment II. 



Five grains of extract, suspended in water, were injected into the right jugular vein of a 

 dog, and caused the death of the animal in eleven minutes. The stomach was immediately 

 removed, and its contents, along with some of its mucous coat, obtained by scraping, were par- 

 tially dried at a low temperature, and then boiled with successive portions of spirit (85 per cent.) 

 acidulated with tartaric acid. The tincture was concentrated by distillation, and then evapo- 

 rated to dryness. The extract was treated with distilled water, filtered, and agitated with ether 

 until the fatty matters were removed. The remaining watery solution was made alkaline by the 

 addition of carbonate of sodium and shaken with ether ; and the ethereal solution was distilled. 

 A yellowish, alkaline, amorphous residue was obtained, weighing three-fifths of a grain, and 

 having a disagreeable animal odour. A minute portion of this extract was mixed with two 



* Cyclopedia of Anatomy, article " Stomach ;" Lancet, 1853, vol. ii. p. 599 ; and Lectures on 

 the Diseases of the Stomach, 2d edit., 1864, p. 54. 

 ■f Guy's Hospital Reports, vol. vi. p. 397. 



