£02 
Mr. Brqdie on the different Modes 
evidently depend on the degree, in which the circulation Is 
obstructed, and on the length of time during which the ob- 
struction is continued. 
There can be little doubt that the woorara affects the brain, 
by passing into the circulation through the divided vessels. It 
is probable that it does not produce its effects, until it enters 
the substance of the brain, along with the blood, in which it is 
dissolved ; nor will the experiments of the Abbe Fontana, in 
which he found the ticunas produce almost instant death when 
injected into the jugular vein of a rabbit, be found to militate 
against this conclusion, when we consider how short is the 
distance, which, in so small an animal, the blood has to pass 
from the jugular vein to the carotid artery, and the great 
rapidity of the circulation ; since in a rabbit under the influence 
of terror, during such an experiment, the heart cannot be 
supposed to act so seldom as three times in a second. 
I have made no experiments to ascertain through what 
medium other poisons when applied to wounds affect the vital 
organs, but from analogy we may suppose that they enter the 
circulation through the divided blood-vessels. 
IV. 
The facts already related led me to conclude that alcohol* 
the essential oil of almonds, the juice of aconite, the oil of 
tobacco, and the woorara, occasion death simply by destroy- 
ing the functions of the brain. The following experiment 
appears fully to establish the truth of this conclusion. 
Exp. 30. The temperature of the room being 58° of Fah- 
renheit's thermometer, I made two wounds in the side of a 
rabbit, and applied to them some of the wmorara in the form 
