536 DR THOMAS R. FRASER ON THE ANTAGONISM BETWEEN 



This account, however, does not very obviously support Professor Bennett's 

 opinion ; for, of the eight experiments mentioned, in which rabbits were sub- 

 jected to the influence of the two substances, seven terminated in death, and 

 only one in recovery. Further, there is no evidence to show conclusively 

 that the rabbit that formed the subject of the apparently favourable experi- 

 ment had received a dose of physostigma sufficient to have caused its death 

 had no chloral been administered. 



In the preceding historical sketch every important alleged example of anta- 

 gonism has been referred to. It has been shown that although in many cases 

 the a priori reasons in favour of the existence of a lethal or of a more or less 

 general antagonism are extremely plausible, the experimental data by means of 

 which it has been attempted to establish the reality of the antagonism are 

 probably, without exception, imperfect, and therefore insufficient to do so. I 

 trust, however, that the description of the research forming the subject of the 

 present communication will render it obvious that the reality of a lethal anta- 

 gonism may be readily and certainly established by experiment. 



Antagonism between the Actions of Physostigma and Atropia. 



This research on the antagonism between the actions of physostigma and 

 atropia was commenced in April 1868, and the results of some of the earlier 

 experiments were published in a preliminary note read before this Society, on 

 the 30th of May 1869.""" In this note were described a number of experiments, 

 which prove that the lethal action of physostigma may be prevented by the 

 physiological action of atropia. 



Previous to this time, however, the attention of more than one observer had 

 been attracted to the subject. In 1864, KleinwIchter narrated an interesting- 

 case of poisoning with an unknown quantity of atropia, in which the internal 

 administration of physostigma produced a marked amelioration of the symp- 

 toms, t Three years subsequently, Bourneville, of Paris, in a paper on the 

 treatment of tetanus by physostigma,| described an experiment in which he, in 

 the first place, introduced into the stomach of a cabiai a quantity of powdered 

 kernel of physostigma, sufficient, in his opinion, to cause death, and then, while 

 severe symptoms were present, injected subcutaneously a small quantity of 

 atropia, with the result that the symptoms quickly diminished in severity, and 

 the cabiai ultimately reassumed a normal condition. At the time when my 

 preliminary note was published, Bourneville's experiment was quite unknown 

 to me, and it is with much satisfaction that I now draw attention to it as an 

 independent observation harmonising with the results I had obtained when my 



* Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1868-69, pp. 587-590. 



t Berliner Klinische Wochenschriffc, No. 38, 1864, p. 369. 



% De l'Emploi de la Feve de Calabar dans le Traitment du Tetanus Paris, 1867. 



