534 DR THOMAS E. ERASER ON THE ANTAGONISM BETWEEN 



Between Atropia and Muscaria, — The second of the instances mentioned 

 was first made known by Schmiedeberg and Koppe, in a very interesting memoir 

 on Muscaria, published in 1869.* This active principle was separated by them 

 from Agaricus muscarine, L., and found to possess an action in many respects 

 contrary to that of atropia. The general nature of its lethal action was observed 

 to be similar to that of prussic acid ; and, accordingly, the reasons which 

 induced Schmiedeberg and Koppe to examine as to an antagonism between it 

 and atropia were analogous to those by which Preyer was led to investigate the 

 influence of atropia in counteracting the primary lethal action of prussic acid. 

 In this instance, likewise, only a very few experiments were made. Their 

 results, however, are strongly in support of the existence of a more or less 

 general physiological antagonism between the two substances. 



Various other instances of General and Lethal Antagonism. — In addition to 

 these, many other examples of general or of lethal antagonism have been ad- 

 vanced. Their existence, however, has rarely been inferred from a knowledge 

 that the substances concerned influence the same structures in contrary modes, 

 but has been conjectured from a knowledge merely of the general pheno- 

 mena which are produced by these substances. The conspicuous spasmodic 

 effects by which the action of strychnia is characterised, appear to have sug- 

 gested the employment, as physiological counteragents, of various substances 

 whose general action includes the production of paralysis ; and, accordingly, the 

 list of proposed antagonists to this alkaloid includes opium,t curara,J aconite,§ 

 nicotia,|| bromide of potassium,^ chloroform,** chloral,tt and nitrite of amyl.|| 

 Opium and quinia have been proposed as antidotes to each other, because the 

 former exalts several of the organic functions, whilst the latter depresses them.§§ 

 General antagonism has been inferred between chloroform and sulphuric ether, 

 solely on the ground that the anaesthetic action of the former is supposed to be 

 accompanied with depression, and that of the latter with excitement ;|||| and the 



* Das Muscarin. Das Giftige alkaloid des Eliegenpilzes. Von Dr Oswald Schmiedeberg und Dr 

 Richard Koppe. Leipzig, 1869. 



■f* Pelletier et Caventou. See Dictionnaire Encyclopedique des Sciences Medicales (Antidote), 

 tome 5 me , 1866, p. 322. 



% L. Vella. Comptes Rendus des Seances de TAcademie des Sciences, xlix. 1859, p. 330, and 

 li. 1860, p. 353. 



§ E. Woakes. The British Medical Journal, October 26, 1861, p. 440. 



|| S. Haughton. Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, August 1862. 



IT E. A. Saison. Du Bromure de Potassium et de son Antagonism avec la Strychnine. Paris, 1868. 



** T. Gallard. Annales d'Hygiene publique et de Medicine Legale, t. xxiv. 1865, pp. 182-184. 



tt Oscar Liebreich, Comptes Rendus des Seances de lAcademie des Sciences, lxx. 1870, p. 403 ; 

 Bennett, Edinburgh Medical Journal, 1870, v. 16, part 1, p. 262; Groves, Medical Press and 

 Circular, 1870, p. 398. 



XX J- St Clair Gray. Glasgow Medical Journal, February 1871, p. 188. 



§§ Gdbler. Societe Medicare des hopitaux, 10 Eevxier, 1858; and Commentaires Therapeu- 

 tiques du Codex Medicamentarius, 1868, p. 591. 



Illl Falin. These, 1860. (Quoted by Camus, op. cit. p. 122.) 



