20 6 Mr. Brodie on the different Modes 
V. 
The experiments, which have been detailed lead to the fol- 
lowing conclusions. 
1. Alcohol, the essential oil of almonds, the juice of aco- 
nite, the empyreumatic oil of tobacco, and the woorara, act as 
poisons by simply destroying the functions of the brain ; uni- 
versal death taking place, because respiration is under the 
influence of the brain, and ceases when its functions are de- 
stroyed. 
2. The infusion of tobacco when injected into the intestine, 
and the upas antiar when applied to a wound, have the power 
of rendering the heart insensible to the stimulus of the blood, 
thus stopping the circulation ; in other words, they occasion 
syncope. 
3. There is reason to believe that the poisons, which in 
these experiments were applied internally, produce their ef- 
fects through the medium of the nerves without being ab- 
sorbed into the circulation. 
4. When the woorara is applied to a wound, it produces its 
effects on the brain, by entering the circulation through the 
divided blood-vessels, and, from analogy, we may conclude 
that other poisons, when applied to wounds, operate in a simi- 
lar manner. 
5. When an animal is apparently dead from the influence 
of a poison, which acts by simply destroying the functions of 
at Paris by M. Delile, by which I find that he had employed artificial respiration 
for the purpose of recovering animals, which were under the influence of this poison, 
with success. M. Delile describes the Upas Tieute as causing death, by occa- 
sioning repeated and long continued contractions of the muscles of respiration, on 
which it acts through the medium of the spinal marrow, without destroying the func- 
tions of the brain. 
