1866.] 



resembling Quinine, in Animals, ^c. 



87 



From these experiments it is seen that the fluorescent substance which 

 exists naturally in the tissues, at the very highest reaches to 6 grains in 

 1 00 litres of water, and usually is between 4 and 1 J grains of quinine 

 dissolved in this quantity of water. 



When quinine has been taken, even in a quarter of an hour the fluo- 

 rescence may become equal to 75 grains of quinine in 100 litres of water. 

 It is found to be in greatest quantity in the liver and the kidney, and 

 somewhat less in the blood, urine, and muscles ; still less in the brain, 

 nerves, and bile ; and the increase is slightly perceptible even in the lenses. 

 In three hours the maximum efi^ect of the quinine may be reached, the 

 fluorescence being then from 100 to 200 grains of quinine in 100 litres of 

 water. This amount was found in the liver, kidney, urine, bile, blood, 

 brain, and muscles. The increase was much less perceptible in the nerves 

 and in the aqueous humour, and was least in the lenses. 



In six hours the amount of fluorescence was rather less than in three 

 hours ; in twenty-four hours it was considerably less than half as much as 

 in three hours ; in forty-eight hours there was but little more fluorescent 

 substance than naturally exists in the textures, except in the liver and the 

 blood ; and in seventy-two hours there was no increase except in the liver. 

 Hence, in guineapigs, in fifteen minutes the quinine has passed to all the 

 vascular and probably to the extravascular textures. In three hours the 

 amount of quinine in the textures may be at the maximum, and for six 

 hours it remains in excess ; in twenty-four hours the quinine is much 

 diminished, and in forty-eight hours it is scarcely perceptible anywhere. 



In order, if possible, to obtain very decisive proof that quinine passed 

 into the non-vascular texture of the lens, we gave two pigs three grains of 

 sulphate of quinine, and half an hour afterwards three grains more ; the 

 animals were killed five hours after the first dose. One lens of each pig 

 was put into glycerine, to be compared with the lenses of two other pigs 

 bought at the same time and place, to which no quinine was given. In 

 the electric light there was no apparent difference, either in the colour 

 or in the brightness of the fluorescence, between the pigs that had taken 

 quinine and those that had taken none. Examined by the spark of the 

 coil, the fluorescence of all four lenses was less than one-sixty-fourth of a 

 grain of quinine in a litre of water ; and scarcely any difference was per- 

 ceptible, though the fluorescence of the lenses of the pigs that had taken 

 quinine was slightly the strongest. In all, the fluorescence was rendered 

 less strong by the addition of a strong solution of common salt to the 

 solution. 



Two pigs were both given fifteen grains of sulphate of quinine in five 

 doses of three grains each, with the interval of one hour between each dose. 

 They were killed one hour after the last dose, being, however, almost dead 

 from the effects of the quinine. One lens of each animal was examined in 

 the usual way. The fluorescence in both was equal to one-thirty-second 

 of a grain of quinine in a litre of water, or three grains per 100 litres. 



VOL. XV. I 



