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



Some experiments were made with acetate of atropia also. I have not con- 

 sidered it necessary to describe these in detail, or to include them in the above 

 Table, as the symptoms were the same as those observed with corresponding 

 doses of the sulphate. 



It appeared of interest to examine if analogous symptoms were produced 

 in other cold-blooded animals, and, with this view, a number of experiments were 

 made with Triton cristatus — a species of water-newt, which abounds in many of 

 the lochs in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 



It was found that sulphate of atropia produces in this animal the same 

 general paralytic and convulsant effects as in the frog. After the subcutaneous 

 administration of doses that were somewhat smaller than the minimum fatal, a 

 condition of partial but marked paralysis was, in the first place, produced ; and 

 this was succeeded, in less than twenty-four hours, by a condition of slight impair- 

 ment of the power of voluntary movement with decided increase of reflex 

 excitability, which condition persisted, in many of the experiments, for more than 

 fourteen days. The reflex excitability manifested itself by sudden starts, when 

 the skin was gently touched ; and by tetanic spasm, lasting for from fifteen to 

 forty seconds, when the irritation was more prolonged and powerful, as when 

 produced by a series of taps with the handle of a scalpel. The appearance of this 

 tetanus was somewhat peculiar, and its characters varied considerably. Fre- 

 quently, the trunk of the body was curved laterally, with the tail curled in three 

 or four coils, and the head twisted round to such an extent that the snout was in 

 contact with the outside coil of the tail ; at other times, the body was curved in 

 an opisthotonic spasm, with the tail elevated either in a straight oblique line or 

 in coils, and with the head raised ; while, not unfrequently, the trunk of the 

 body was irregularly contorted, with the head and tail in one or other of the 

 above positions. 



SECTION B. 



The experiments that have been made are sufficiently numerous to show what 

 dose is required to produce these extraordinary convulsive phenomena. Tetanus, 

 or, at least, a state of greatly exaggerated reflex excitability, may be looked for 

 with great confidence, when a dose of the sulphate or acetate of atropia, equiva- 

 lent to about the xoWth of the weight of the frog, is administered by injection, 

 either under the skin or into the abdominal cavity. If the latter region be 

 selected, it is necessary to puncture the abdominal parietes at a point as far 

 removed from the heart as possible, in order to prevent a powerful local action 

 on that organ ; at the same time, taking care to avoid injuring the lungs. It 

 is also important to dissolve the atropia-salt in only a few minims of water — from 

 four to eight is quite a sufficient quantity. Not only is the danger of affecting 

 the heart by local contact thereby diminished when the exhibition is by the 



