968 DR THOMAS R. FRASER ON STROPHANTHUS HISPIDUS. 



the chest, it was placed, one hour and nine minutes after the administration, on the back, 

 and it remained in this position after a few feeble struggles ; and while in this position, 

 careful inspection failed to reveal any cardiac movement. One hour and thirty-two 

 minutes after the administration, the heart was exposed and found to be motionless 

 and inexcitable, with the ventricle small and pale on the anterior surface and dark on 

 the posterior surface, and with the auricles large and dark. At this time the pupils were 

 small, and the skin much paler than before the experiment. Irritation of the skin over 

 the nates caused reflex movements for ten minutes subsequently, when the observations 

 were discontinued. 



Half-a-grain of the same poison, dissolved and suspended in four minims of water, 

 was injected under the skin of a frog weighing 438 grains. Similar symptoms to those 

 last described made their appearance, with the addition of prolonged gaping movements 

 of the mouth. In fifteen minutes, the frog remained on the back, and no cardiac move- 

 ment could be detected. The exposure of the heart was purposely delayed in order to 

 see if any symptoms of a spasmodic description, or any evidence of reflex exaggeration 

 would appear, but they were not detected. The heart was exposed one hour and twenty- 

 five minutes after the injection of the poison, and it was found to be motionless and 

 inexcitable, with the ventricle small and mottled, and the auricles large and dark ; but 

 spinal reflex movements could still be obtained on irritation. A few minutes afterwards, 

 it was found that a section of the ventricle and also a section of the vastus externus 

 muscle was acid in reaction. 



Rather less than two minims of the dark venous blood that had escaped when the 

 heart was incised in the preceding experiment were injected under the skin at the left 

 flank of a small frog weighing 320 grains. Decided symptoms were manifested in an 

 hour and a half, and they were of the same kind as those described in the preceding ex- 

 periment. In an hour and forty-five minutes, the respirations had ceased, the frog remained 

 on the back, and careful examination failed to reveal any cardiac impact. The heart, 

 however, was not exposed until the following morning, when the ventricle was found to 

 be pale and contracted, and the auricles dark and distended. Strong general muscular 

 rigidity was also then present. 



As the physical and chemical characters of this poison, and also in some respects of 

 the poison of arrow D, reputed to be the same substance, were somewhat different from 

 those of the poison of most of the other arrows, it was considered advisable to perform 

 another experiment, in order to determine if the Sassy or Muave (Eiythrophlceum) poison 

 might not be present. The latter poison is of wide distribution; and as it is extensively 

 used as an ordeal, its toxic properties are well known to many tribes in Equatorial Africa. 

 It also is a cardiac poison, but in addition it produces spasms by acting on the medulla- 

 centre. As the latter action might be masked by cardiac and muscle actions simul- 

 taneously developed, an experiment was made in which, in a frog weighing 435 grains, the 

 blood-vessels of one posterior extremity were carefully ligatured before the watery solu- 

 tion obtained by triturating one-tenth of a grain of the poison J with 4 minims of dis- 



