726 
EXTRACTS FROM A LECTURE ON STRYCHNINE. 
THE SECOND GREYHOU11D — FIETEEN MONTHS OLD. 
0 minute. 1 grain of strychnine on tongue. 
8 minutes. 
U neasy . 
13 
59 
More uneasy. 
16 
„ 
Very uneasy. 
18 
Tetanic spasms. 
19 
>9 
Heavy breathing. 
21 
Jaws clenched. Repose. 
23 
Spasms. Heavy breathing. 
26 
J) 
Repose. 
28 
>9 . 
Spasms. 
29 
99 
Repose. 
33 
99 
Death. 
It will thus be seen that the first greyhound, which received three 
grains of strychnine, resisted the spasmodic symptoms for one hour, and 
was killed by its large dose in one hour and a half ; whilst the second 
greyhound, which had partaken of one grain of strychnine, was over- 
powered by tetanus in eighteen minutes, and died in thirty-three minutes. 
In other words, the dog, with the three grains of strychnine to battle 
against, withstood their preliminary action, and combated with their fatal 
designs, for periods of time three times greater than those observed in the 
instance of the dog which received only one grain of strychnine. Some 
allowance must of course be granted for the diversity in the ages of the two 
greyhounds, but, notwithstanding that, I am inclined to believe that no 
dependence can be placed on the time of the duration of the physiological 
symptoms, as an index of the total quantity of strychnine given to an ani- 
mal. Indeed, were the above experiment alone taken as evidence on this 
point, we would be compelled to assume the rather strange theory, that the 
results of the action of strychnine on the animal system were in time exactly 
in the inverse ratio of the amount of the poison administered. 
I have now more particularly to refer to the influence which the putre- 
factive agents exert on stryehnine, and to the possibility for detecting that 
alkaloid in the remains of an animal which has been buried for some time. 
Three years and a half ago, a large dog, about twelve years old, belonging 
to the Messrs. Doull, of Edinburgh, was supposed to have slightly injured 
a child, and from the popular notion of the tendency of such a hurt to lead 
to hydrophobia, should the inflicter of it ever go mad, the dog was ordered 
by the police to be destroyed. The late proprietors of the animal (who are 
also my informants) accordingly gave it about four grains of strychnine, 
made up into a bread pill of the size of a small marble, and enclosed in a 
bread roll. In three-quarters of an hour spasms came on, and shortly there- 
after, being surprised at the length of time the dog lived, the performers of 
the experiment hit the animal on the head with an iron instrument, and it 
then ceased struggling. When dead, the dog was placed in a large box and 
buried. In company with the late proprietors of the dog, and also my 
assistant, Mr. Allan G. Mackay, I recently exhumed the coffin and its con- 
tents. The latter consisted of the bones of the dog, loosely covered with a 
more or less thick layer of adipocere and hair, intermingled with some dark 
coloured earthy matter. The shell was found four feet below tile surface 
of the ground, resting on a clayey soil, above which was a stratum of garden 
earth. On the exterior surface of the bottom of the coffin was found a fatty 
