May 31, 1873.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
953 
-of the bowels, and in habitual constipation, it is a 
remedy of much value.” It is administered in the 
forms of a mixture and an extract: those prepared 
from the dried fruit, as seen in this country, are said 
to possess much less medicinal power than those pre¬ 
pared in India from fresh fruit. It will be needless 
to recapitulate all that has been said and written on 
the medicinal value of this fruit, as they will be 
fresh in the minds of the readers of the Journal, 
many of whom have likewise probably tested the 
article itself. 
In concluding these notes it only remains to men¬ 
tion two or three plants, the properties of which are 
little known, but which are nevertheless reputed to 
be useful in their native countries; thus, for in¬ 
stance, Hortict brasiliana, Vand., is said to possess 
febrifugal properties and to be used in Brazil. The 
leaves and shoots of Ptelea trifoliatei, L., a North 
American shrub, are used in infusion as an anthel¬ 
mintic, and the aromatic fruits are said to be a. good 
substitute for hops. Casimiroa edulis, a tree of 
Mexico, has a bitter bark, which, together with the 
leaves and seeds, are used as a medicine when burnt 
and reduced to a powder. 
TOXIC EFFECTS OF TETRAMETHYLAMMONIUM 
AND OF TETRAMYLAMMONIUM.* 
BY M. EABUTEAU. 
In the course of some uncompleted researches upon the 
amines, or compound ammonias, the author made the 
following observations, which he deemed of sufficient 
importance to lay before the French Academy at once. 
Whilst the most diverse salts of the primary, secondary, 
and tertiary amines, from the methylamines to amiline 
and the phenylamines, are comparable in their physiological 
effects to other ammoniacal compounds, and would be, 
according to the author’s experiments, muscular poisons 
in large doses, the salts in which all the hydrogen of the 
ammonium is replaced by alcohol radicals, such as the 
iodides of tetramethylammonium and tetramylammonium, 
appear to be poisons of the nerves of movement, completely 
analogous in their effects to those of curara. The follow¬ 
ing are the experiments upon which he bases his propo¬ 
sition :— 
Iodide of Tetramethylammonium .—After having injected 
into the veins of a dog two grams of hydrochlorate of tri- 
methylamine (chloride of trimethylammonium) dissolved 
in forty grams of water, without observing any other 
effect than a slight slackening of the circulation and 
lowering of the animal temperature, it was intended to 
inject into another dog the same quantity of iodide of 
tetramethylammonium. (This salt is but slightly soluble 
in water, which takes up scarcely one-twentieth of its 
weight at ordinary temperatures.) Scarcely, however, 
had one-fourth of the quantity entered the circulation, 
when the animal was greatly affected; the respiratory 
movements ceased nearly immediately. The heart, which 
was accelerated at first, afterwards slackened, not beating 
more than once in five or six seconds, till it stopped com¬ 
pletely at the end of four or five minutes; consequently, 
some time after all respiratory movement had ceased and 
the animal had been reduced to an inert mass. It proved, 
therefore, to be a substance infinitely more active than 
the primary, secondary, or tertiary amines, which operated 
rather by paralysing the motor nerves than by paralysing, 
as do these latter salts, the muscular system, since the 
heart did not stop till after the suspension of the respira¬ 
tion. 
Twenty-five centigrams of iodide of tetramethyl- 
* ‘ Comptes Rendus,’ vol. lxxvi. p. 887. 
ammonium were injected with a Pravaz syringe in five 
places under the skin of the chest of a large dog. Im¬ 
mediately afterwards the cardiac beats were accelerated, 
salivation took place, the pupils were enormously dilated, 
respiration became difficult and painful. A thermometer 
which, introduced into the rectum, previously marked 
39’2° C., rose quickly to 39'4° C. The animal was un¬ 
bound, but could not move itself; it made vain attempts 
to drag along the ground; the posterior members were 
affected more than the anterior; it retained its intelligence, 
and was sensible to prickings of the parts least affected. 
The animal recovered at the end of about half an hour, 
from which it would appear the poison is quickly elimi¬ 
nated. 
The symptoms were exactly similar to those produced 
by curara. These experiments were supplemented by 
others on frogs, which are described by the author, and 
which confirmed his opinion as to iodide of tetramethyl¬ 
ammonium being an energetic poison, paralysing the ex¬ 
tremities of the motor nerves, but not affecting sensibility 
or muscular contractility. 
Iodide of Tetramylammonium .—This compound, which 
is pretty soluble in boiling water, is nearly insoluble in 
cold; so that it is necessary to inject into frogs at least 
twenty drops of a saturated aqueous solution at ordinary 
temperature, to cause death, which follows much more 
slowly than under the influence of but three or four drops 
of a saturated solution of tetramethylammonium at the 
same temperature. The symptoms observed were of the 
same order as those previously noticed, showing that the 
amylic compound is a poison of the same nature as the 
methylic compound. So that the salts of tetramylam¬ 
monium and of tetramethylammonium, such as their 
iodides,— 
chA NI 
CHj 
and 
c 5 h u 
C 5 H n 
C 5 H n 
c 5 h u 
NI 
are active poisons, whilst the hydrochlorate of trimethyl- 
amine— 
CHB 
ch!( 
C H :i ( 
H ) 
NCI 
is not. The most striking point in these results is that 
the substitution of C H 3 for all the hydrogen of ammonium 
transforms a slightly active compound into an extremely 
poisonous one, operating similarly to curara. However, 
it should be remembered that the compounds obtained by 
treating the alkaloids with the hydriodic ethers produce 
analogous effects; thus iodide of methylstrychnium acts 
by paralysing the motor nerves. 
Such are the results of the author’s first researches, and 
if, as he thinks probable, the salts of tetramethylammonium, 
tetrapropylammonium, tetrabutylammonium, and those 
which correspond to the other alcohols, produce similar 
effects, he will have pointed out a new and very numerous 
group of curaric poisons. 
THE COMPARATIVE THERAPEUTICAL VALUE OF 
SALTS OF PROTOXIDE AND SESQUIOXIDE OF 
IRON, AND ON A NEW SERIES OF TASTELESS 
IRON COMBINATIONS.* 
BY J. L. A. CREUSE. 
It is not my intention here to treat on the medical pro¬ 
perties and uses of ferruginous compounds as a class; this 
has been done before me by more competent persons. My 
purpose is only to discuss the relative physiological and 
* Read at the second annual meeting and published in 
the annual report of the Alumni Association of the College 
of Pharmacy of the city of New York.— Amer. Jov.rn. 
Pharm. 
