166 DRS CRUM BROWN AND FRASER ON THE CONNECTION BETWEEN 



Experiment XLIIL— One-fifth of a grain of brucia was dissolved in ten minims 

 of very dilute hydrochloric acid, and injected, with Wood's syringe, into the 

 subcutaneous tissue of the rabbit that had, some days previously, been subjected 

 to an experiment with fifteen grains of iodide of methyl-brucium. In seven 

 minutes, a constrained position was assumed by the rabbit, and the slightest 

 touch caused a sudden spasmodic contraction of the four limbs by which the 

 body was swiftly elevated. In eight minutes, the rabbit sprang to a considerable 

 height, and fell in a well-marked tetanic convulsion, which lasted about fifteen 

 seconds. After this, a series of violent tetanic convulsions, of a distinctly 

 opisthotonic character, followed each other in rapid succession; and at the 

 termination of one of these, eighteen minutes and thirty seconds after the injec- 

 tion of the poison, the rabbit died. There was distinct rigor mortis thirty 

 minutes after death. 



For internal administration, the iodide of methyl-brucium was also reduced to 

 a very fine powder, and suspended and dissolved in warm distilled water. It 

 was then introduced into the stomach, by means of a gum-elastic catheter. In 

 this way, we performed several experiments, but never succeeded in producing 

 any effect, although as large a dose as thirty grains was at one time admin- 

 istered. It is well known that there is considerable difficulty in affecting 

 a rabbit by a poison introduced into the stomach. That this difficulty was 

 not due, in the present instance, to any recognised cause peculiar to the 

 stomach of the rabbit, was shown by an experiment in which we produced 

 tetanic symptoms and death by introducing two grains of brucia into the stomach 

 of the rabbit that had previously received thirty grains of iodide of methyl- 

 brucium without any effect whatever. 



Sulphate of methyl-brucium ((C O3 H 26 N 2 0. t CH 3 ) 2 S0 4 , dried at 100°C) was pre- 

 pared by precipitating a hot solution of the iodide by means of sulphate of silver. 

 It forms a white crystalline mass, readily soluble in water, and, as well as the 

 iodide, gives the ordinary brucia reaction with nitric acid. It is freely soluble 

 in cold water. 



We examined the effects of this substance by subcutaneous injection and by 

 introduction into the stomach. For the former purpose, it was dissolved in a 

 few minims of distilled water, and injected under the skin with a Woods 

 syringe. In a rabbit, one grain could be thus given without any effect, two 

 grains caused marked effects, which were not, however, fatal ; while two grains 

 and a-half soon killed the animal. The symptoms were the same as those 

 of the iodide, and, therefore, very different from the exaggerated reflex action, 

 convulsions, and tetanus, w r hich are caused by brucia itself. They are illustrated 

 in the following experiments. 



Experiment LIII. — We injected two grains of sulphate of methyl-brucium, dis- 

 solved in fifteen minims of distilled water, under the skin of a rabbit, weighing two 



