458 DR T. R. FRASER ON SOME UNDESCRIBED TETANIC SYMPTOMS 



The total duration of the symptoms was considerably shorter in a few of the 

 experiments, of which the following is an example : — 



Experiment XVII. — Three-twentieths of a grain of sulphate of atropia was 

 dissolved in four minims of distilled water, and injected under the skin at the 

 left flank of a male frog, weighing 156 grains; but during some vigorous move- 

 ments of the frog, which succeeded this injection, a small quantity of the solution 

 escaped from the subcutaneous tissue. In a few minutes, the frog was lying on 

 the abdomen ; chest, and lower jaw in a flaccid state; but even in three hours the 

 conductivity of the motor nerves was found to be retained. The observations 

 were now interrupted until the following day. 



At this time — twenty-four hours after the administration — the frog was lying 

 as last described ; but the conductivity of the motor nerves was found to be com- 

 pletely suspended, while idio-muscular contractility was apparently unaffected. The 

 heart's contractions were very feeble, and occurred twenty-six times in the minute. 



On the third day — fifty hours after the administration — the state of flaccid 

 paralysis had disappeared, and the frog was sitting in a nearly normal posture, 

 except that the anterior extremities were unnaturally and somewhat rigidly 

 flexed. On touching any part of the body, a violent attack of opisthotonic tetanus 

 occurred, during which the animal was turned on the back. Such attacks could 

 be excited at any time, at short intervals, during the next three hours, at the end 

 of which period the observations were interrupted. They were general for five 

 seconds; but the tetanic contraction continued in the anterior extremities for 

 five seconds longer than elsewhere. In the intervals between them the frog 

 turned itself from the back, and executed feeble and slow voluntary movements. 

 The heart's contractions were of fair strength, and at the rate of forty-six in the 

 minute ; and the respiratory movements of the chest and throat were of nearly 

 normal frequency. 



On the fourth day — seventy-four hours after the administration — the frog 

 seemed to have perfectly recovered : it moved and jumped about freely, and no 

 trace of exaggerated activity of the reflex function could be discovered. 



The description that has been given, and the illustrative experiments that have 

 been narrated, are sufficient to indicate the usual characters and sequence of the 

 phenomena with such a dose of atropia as produces tetanus. Experiments have, 

 however, been made in which the functions of the cerebro-spinal nervous system 

 were not observed to be completely suspended in the stage of the poisoning, 

 antecedent to the appearance of tetanus. Only impairment of these functions 

 was observed ; but, as the state of flaccidity often lasts for several days, it is 

 obviously impossible to make observations so continuously during its existence, 

 as to authorise the assertion that total suspension did not occur. At the same 

 time, there is no reason for supposing that complete paralysis is a necessary 

 antecedent to tetanus. 



