10 BULLETIN 365, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
5. The delphinin seems to act successively and with a paralyzing effect upon 
the general sensitiveness, the reflex power, the respiration, and the coordina- 
tion of movements. Its favorite place of predilection is the nervous system 
and it has no influence on the muscular system. 
According to most authors convulsions come on in the later stages 
of the poisoning, with intervals in which the animal is in a comatose 
condition. Characteristic of Delphinium poisoning are the muscular 
tremblings which start in the abdominal muscles and pass over the 
body. Although most of the authors agree in general on the symp- 
toms and the anatomical lesions exhibited by animals poisoned by 
delphinin, there is some disagreement as to the way the poison acts 
in bringing about the observed results. Several authors have com- 
pared delphinin to veratrin, and some have compared it to curare, 
while most of them find that its action is similar to that of its near 
relative aconitin. It certainly is true that the action of delphinin 
on experimental animals, as given by most authors, corresponds 
very closely with the recognized action of aconitin. The principal 
difference seems to be that delphinin has a direct depressing action 
on the vasomotor centers of the cord (Boehm and Serck) and that it 
does not paralyze the heart muscles to any extent (Schiller). Some 
of the earlier authors attributed the paralysis of Delphinium poison- 
ing to a paralyzing action on the muscles similar to that caused by 
veratrin, but it has been established that delphinin exerts its essen- 
tial action on the nervous system rather than directly on the muscles. 
Rabuteau and some others advance the theory that the paralysis 
is due, as in the case of curare poisoning, to the paralysis of the 
motor end organs rather than to a depression of the nerve centers; 
while Boehm and Serck describe experiments which show that the 
preparation of delphinin used by them acted on the motor nerve 
centers rather than on the end organs. 
The chlorid of the alkaloids in the American Delphiniums has 
been separated by Lohmann and put upon the market by Merck 
under the name of Delphocurarine, with the idea that it may be 
used as a drug instead of curare. This has been discussed in some 
detail by Heyl, 1903. 
Authors seem to agree that the slowing of the respiratory move- 
ments and the final asphyxiation are due to depression of the re- 
spiratory centers in the medulla oblongata and the afferent vagus 
fibers. Boehm and Serck, 1876, show that death is delayed by using 
artificial respiration, indicating that asphyxiation is the immediate 
cause of death rather than the stopping of the heart. They also 
found that immediately after injections of delphinin, both pulse 
rate and blood pressure fell, due to the stimulation of the vagus. 
This is followed by a rise due to paralysis of the vagus through con- 
tinued action of the poison. If the dose is repeated or if the original 
