310 PROFESSOR C. R. MARSHALL ON 



tion of a lethal or nearly lethal dose of tutin to rabbits, a comatose condition usually 

 develops in the later stages of the intoxication, and is in all probability a direct effect 

 of the poison on the higher centres. 



The most convincing evidence of the depressant action of toot poison comes from 

 cases of accidental poisoning in men. In all the cases of recovery described there has 

 been no remembrance of eating tutu berries or of the convulsions which followed, and 

 in some patients normal memory is said not to have returned for many months. Dr 

 Giles, in a letter to Professor Easterfield and Mr Aston, describes the case of a soldier 

 who suffered from violent convulsions, which he successfully treated by chloroform 

 inhalations. " The next morning the man was sore from the violent strain the muscles 

 had undergone, but was otherwise quite recovered, with the single exception that his 

 memory was totally obliterated. The past was a perfect blank to him : he did not 

 know his own name, who he was, or where he came from. This condition gradually 

 passed away, and in a day or two he was as well as ever." Another example cited by 

 the same medical man is that of two men who, having lost their way in the bush, had 

 eaten tutu berries. One died ; the other was found gesticulating and behaving like a 

 maniac. When rescued, " his memory was said by the witnesses to be a blank, and it 

 only returned gradually." He also states that the late Dr Carl Fischer, who had 

 commenced to investigate the poison, " had been obliged to discontinue his experiments 

 because his memory became so impaired that he found himself constantly forgetting his 

 appointments." Somewhat similar symptoms are described by Christie * as the result 

 of an experiment on himself. After taking 8 J grains of an extract (representing 

 about 800 grains of leaf) in two doses, vomiting commenced about four hours after the 

 first dose, and slight twitches were felt in the arms and legs two hours later. A 

 convulsion which was noted two and a half hours later was not remembered by him, 

 but half a grain of morphine had been administered to stop the vomiting one and a half 

 hours before. After recovery, " sensation and discrimination were dulled," and a month 

 later parsesthesia and numbness were felt in the fingers and toes. These last-named 

 symptoms continued for a month. There appears to be little doubt, therefore, that 

 tutin, even in relatively small doses, exerts a decidedly depressant effect upon the 

 higher functions of the brain. 



Influence on Temperature. 



In my experiments with rabbits, tutin invariably caused a fall of the body 

 temperature, and after non-convulsant or small convulsant doses the fall was in most 

 cases roughly proportional to the dose administered. This is seen in the following 

 graph, more especially in the curves plotted for 0"5 mg., 1 mg., and 1"5 mg. per kg. 

 body- weight respectively. The remaining curve of 3 mg. per kg. body- weight shows 

 a greater proportionate effect than would be expected of this dose, but this is due to the 



* hoc. cit. 



