ACTION OF URARI AND OF STRYCHNIA- 
45 
possession, and which, to cause such variety of opinion, must at least be 
very uncertain, I think, with M. Eobiquet, that it is only when oxidized it 
possesses that pow r er. It would be impossible for it to pass through the 
intestines without some degree of oxidation, and that degree would vary as 
circumstances varied during its passage ; the variation of its purgative 
activity is hereby accounted for. M. Eobiquet proposes to use it for the 
treatment of fever, &c., as an antiperiodic ; and with the idea, I presume, of 
preventing its oxidation, and consequent aperient effect, gives it in com- 
bination with finely divided metallic iron (Jer reduit). 
Perhaps were the dose enveloped in wax or spermaceti, or still better, in 
Evans’s membrane capsules, so that it may pass into the bowels previous to 
solution, the result would be more uniform. —Pharmaceutical Journal. 
Weymouth , July 21, 1856. 
ON THE ACTION OE URARI AND OE STRYCHNIA ON THE 
ANIMAL ECONOMY. 
By Professor Albert Kolliker, of Wurzburg. 
(Communicated by Dr. Sharpey, Secretary to the Royal Society.) 
The communication which I now offer to the Royal Society, 
contains a brief statement of the results of a series of experi- 
ments which I lately made on the action of the urari poison 
and of strychnia on the animal economy. 
I. Urari. 
The urari is the well-known poison from Guiana, also 
called Curare and Woorara. That which 1 employed in my 
experiments I owe to the liberality of my friend Professor 
Christison of Edinburgh. The following are the conclusions 
at which I arrived respecting its operation : 
1. The urari causes death very rapidly when injected into 
the blood or inserted into a wound ; when introduced by way 
of the mucous membrane of the intestinal canal, its effects are 
slow and require a large dose for their production, especially 
in mammalia. When applied to the skin of frogs it is alto- 
gether inoperative. 
2. Frogs poisoned with very small doses of urari may 
gradually recover, even after it has produced complete para- 
lysis of the nerves. Mammalia may also be restored, even 
after large doses, provided respiration is maintained arti- 
ficially. 
3. The urari, acting through the blood, destroys the excita- 
bility of the motor nerves. In frogs under its operation the 
terminal branches of these nerves within the muscles lose 
their excitability in a few minutes, whilst their trunks become 
