August 2G, 1871.] 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
1G5 
two ounces of carbolic acid (Calvert’s No. 5, 10 water to 
1 acid), and left tho contents exposed to the air in the 
same apartment with Nos. 1, 2, and 3. Result , July 
10th, 1871: There was no offensive odour nor putre¬ 
faction. 
“ Class II. Experiment v.—In January, 1871,1 excised 
from a man’s left arm a non-malignant tumour weigh¬ 
ing a pound and a half, and dressed the wound with 
thin muslin and Calvert’s carbolic acid No. 5 (propor¬ 
tion, 30 of water to 1 of acid). The acid solution was 
dropped freely over tho muslin many times during the 
day. The wound healed without suppuration or putre¬ 
faction. 
Experiment vi.—I amputated an old man’s middle 
finger in April, 1871, and dressed it in the same way as 
No. 5, with thin muslin, dropping tho acid solution 
freely over the muslin several times throughout the 
day. The result was a perfect cicatrix, without any 
appearance of pus, suppuration or putrefaction. 
Experiment vii.—A miner had both arms and face 
burnt in consequence of an explosion whilst blasting. 
The face was treated with linseed-oil and linseed-meal 
poultices, and afterwards with oxide of zinc ointment. 
A small quantity of pus could be detected. The arms 
were treated with carbolic acid and linseed-oil, 1 to 20. 
The muslin (the only covering) was always kept wet 
with the oil and acid. Tho result wa3 a complete cure, 
without any pus or putrefaction. 
These experiments, in combination with those which 
I published last year, have completely convinced me 
that the detailed plan of dressing wounds recommended 
by Professor Lister is absolutely unnecessary for the 
object of healing wounds by the first intention or with¬ 
out the formation of pus; and that the germ-theory of 
disease is, correctly speaking, an error. 
In the first class of these experiments, I treated the 
blood and beef with exactly the same quantity of the 
acid solution, in the same proportion; and sealed one so 
as to exclude tho contents completely from the atmo¬ 
sphere, and left the other exposed to the atmosphere. 
Under these opposite conditions, both, in tho course of 
eight months, presented almost the same appearance, 
and no appreciable distinction could be recognized be¬ 
tween their odours. There were no marks or signs of 
putrefaction in either. 
The second class of experiments also gave the same 
result, and shows that only careful attention and re¬ 
gular application are required to produce always similar 
effects. I used the muslin cloth so as to allow a free 
current of air to all parts of the wounds. I firmly be¬ 
lieve that the real difference in healing with or without 
suppuration is chiefly, if not altogether, owing to regu¬ 
larity in the application; and that the beneficial effects 
of the acid are to be principally attributed to its chemi¬ 
cal and stimulating influence on the constituents of the 
blood and other parts concerned .—British Medical 
Journal. 
THE ANTAGONISM BETWEEN THE ACTIONS OF 
PHYSOSTIGMA AND ATROPIA. * 
In a Preliminary Note read before the Royal Society 
of Edinburgli on the 31st of May, 1869, a number of ex¬ 
periments were described, which proved that the lethal 
action of certain doses of physostigma can be prevented 
by the administration of atropia.fi Further, it was 
pointed out, that antagonism between any two sub¬ 
stances, in the sense of the lethal action of the one being 
prevcntible by the physiological action of the other, 
* Abstract of a Paper read before the Royal Society of 
Edinburgh, May 29, 1871. 
fi June, 1871.—While this Abstract is passing through the 
press, the author has received a paper by M. Bourneville, in 
which the above result is satisfactorily confirmed by experi¬ 
ments on guinea-pigs. 
had not previously been shown to exist by any certain 
and satisfactory evidence. In the various instances 
where experiment seemed to indicato the existence of 
such an antagonism, sufficient proof was not given that 
the dose of the substance whose action appeared to bo 
antagonized was certainly a lethal one. The conflicting 
opinions and doubts this fallacy has given origin to, havo 
induced the author to follow a plan whereby it may bo 
completely avoided. 
In the first place, tho minimum fatal dose of physo¬ 
stigma for the species of animal employed was accurately 
determined by a number of preliminary experiments; 
so that the weight of the animal being ascertained, it 
was an easy matter to be certain of the dose that could 
kill it. Then, in those experiments where an animal 
recovered after tho administration of a dose of atropia 
given in combination with a dose of physostigma, equal 
to or in excess of the minimum fatal, it was killed many 
days afterwards, and when tho effects of the two sub¬ 
stances had completely disappeared, by a dose of physo¬ 
stigma, equal to or less than that from which it had pre¬ 
viously recovered. Therefore, when the administration 
of atropia prevented an otherwise fatal dose of physo¬ 
stigma from causing death, a perfect demonstration was 
obtained of the power of atropia to produce some physio¬ 
logical action or actions that counteracted some otherwise 
lethal action or actions of physostigma. 
In the preliminary note referred to, it was suggested 
that, as both atropia and physostigma are capable of 
producing a number of different actions, several of which 
may not be mutually antagonistic, and that, as both 
substances are capable of producing several actions of a 
similar kind, considerably less potent to cause death than 
those by which their fatal effects are usually induced, 
it would probably be found that a region exists where 
the non-antagonized and the similar actions are present 
in sufficient degrees of activity to be themselves able to 
produce fatal results. This anticipation has proved to 
be correct. A large number of experiments have been 
made, by which the region of the successful antagonism 
of fatal doses of physostigma has been defined with con¬ 
siderable exactness. The smallest and the largest doses 
of atropia that are able to prevent death after the admi¬ 
nistration of different fatal doses of physostigma, and 
the maximum fatal dose of physostigma that is capable 
of being rendered non-fatal by atropia were ascertained, 
and it was found that beyond these various points death 
may bo produced by combined doses of the two sub¬ 
stances, either by some non-antagonized action belong¬ 
ing to one or other of them, or by a combination of 
similar actions belonging to both. 
As the above results could be obtained only by per¬ 
forming a very large number of experiments, rabbits 
were the animals selected, it being impossible to obtain a 
sufficient number of dogs, or other convenient animal. 
The weight of animal employed was, as nearly as pos¬ 
sible, three pounds; and when below or in excess of this 
a correction was made, so that each dose represented 
three pounds weight of animal. 
In one portion of this investigation, experiments were 
performed in which physostigma was given five minutes 
after atropia, both substances being injected under tho 
skin. In the first series, the dose of physostigma was 
the minimum fatal, and the doses of atropia ranged 
from one that was too small to prevent the lethal action 
of this dose of physostigma, through a number of gradu¬ 
ally increasing doses of atropia that were able to prevent 
death, until a dose was found whose administration re¬ 
sulted in death. Similar scries of experiments were made 
with doses of physostigma, one and a halftimes, twice, two 
and a half times, thrice, and three and a half times as large 
as the minimum fatal. With the minimum fatal dose of 
physostigma, it was found that while *01 grain of atropia 
is too small to prevent death, -015 grain is able to do so; 
and that with any dose ranging from 'Ole grain to o '2 
grains the lethal effect of this dose of physostigma may 
