TOXICOLOGICAL STUDIES ON VERATRINE. 
477 
very clearly attributable to exhaustion from want of food, 
consequent upon the drying up of the grass at the end of the 
dry season, and also, in some degree, to overfeeding in this 
state of exhaustion, when vegetation sprang up with the 
return of the rainy season, occurrences usual every year in 
this arid region. Great distress prevails at this moment in 
the Cape de Verds from famine; and for the last two years 
the loss of cattle has been high, beyond all precedent. 
Dr. McWilliam added, that there had been no chance of 
invoking yellow fever to explain these late epizootics, for, 
since 1846, no such disease had prevailed at Boa Vista, or 
any other of the Cape de Verd Islands : and that it was a 
circumstance worthy of note, that no “ Eclair” had visited 
any island of the group since that time. 
Dr. Webster and Dr. Cliowne considered that, had cholera 
existed among animals, the fact could not have been over- 
looked by the numerous observers who had given the sub- 
ject their attention, but would have been long since clearly 
established. 
The Chairman said, that his own experience had led him to 
the same conclusion. He had made special inquiries on the 
subject in Jamaica, and could not ascertain that the lower 
animals had been affected by the cholera epidemic, though 
they had been greatly affected by the epidemic of influenza. 
The Society then adjourned. — Med. Times and Gazette. 
TOXICOLOGICAL AND PHARMO-DYNAM1C STUDIES ON 
VERATRINE. 
By Dr. Van Praag. 
The author has studied the action of veratrine on vertebrate 
animals, principally on mammifera, but likewise on birds, 
reptiles, and fishes. He has carefully analysed the symptoms 
produced, so as to ascertain the action of this medicament 
on the different systems or organic apparatus. Then re- 
capitulating his observations, he deduces from them general 
propositions on the physiological action of veratrine, which he 
finds to be in many respects analogous to that of delphinine. 
The author formulises the properties of this substance as 
follow 7 s : — 
The respiration and circulation become less active. The 
muscles lose their tension. The irritability of many of the 
nerves, especially the peripheric cutaneous nerves, is much 
