94 DR JAMES A. GUNN ON 
was meantime a considerable reduction in the volume of the kidney, showing that there 
was no dilatation of its blood-vessels. Similar results were obtained with the 
Jase, 1b 
intestinal volume. It would appear, therefore, that the fall of blood pressure is due 
chiefly to diminished output from the heart, and not to dilatation of the abdominal 
vessels, though experiments on the intact animal gave indications of some dilatation 
of the vessels of the skin. 
F. Acrion ON THE RESPIRATION. 
Lethal doses of harmine paralyse the respiration in frogs a short time before 
cessation of the heart beats, but at a time when there is great feebleness of the circula- 
tion. In mammals the same effect is obtained with small lethal doses; but with 
rapidly lethal doses, especially if intravenously injected, the heart beats and respirations 
cease at the same time. At the time of death the diaphracm reacts to weak stimulation 
of the phrenic nerve, and respiratory failure is probably partly due to a direct depressing 
action of harmine on the respiratory centre, and is partly consequent upon circulatory 
failure. 
In the unanzesthetised mammal sublethal doses produce a distinct stimulation of 
respiration. This does not occur if the animal is anesthetised with chloroform or 
ether, a very common phenomenon with respiratory stimulants. 
G. AcTion on TEMPERATURE. 
Large doses of harmine cause a fall of temperature in mammals, an effect which 
has been shown by Harnack * to be generally true of convulsant poisons. The fall of 
temperature is sometimes preceded by a slight transient rise. 
* HARNAOK, Archiv fiir exper. Path. u. Pharmakol., 1897, Bd. xxxviii. 
