324 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[October 21,1871. 
nut-galls merely causes a slight turbidity. There is no 
reason to suppose that any of the active principles are 
affected by these combinations; or that the drug is ren¬ 
dered inert by anything that we know. For a fuller ac¬ 
count of its principles, the reader, if curious, can consult 
Pereira, or the thesis of Brunton. 
Action on the Blood. —Magendieand Thackrah thought 
the addition of a decoction of digitalis interfered with the 
coagulation of the blood. Davy states that the addition 
of a large quantity of watery extract to blood gave it the 
consistence of paste. So far as was known to the au¬ 
thor, no English ol servers have recently noticed any¬ 
thing peculiar in the blood of animals experimented 
upon. And in the large number of animals experimented 
on by him, there never was any appearance about the 
blood which made it different from any other blood. No 
scientific observations of any kind have yet been insti¬ 
tuted as to the action of digitalis or any of its constituents 
on the blood, such as have been performed by Harley, 
Bernard, Fraser, and Crum Brown and Broadbent, on 
some other therapeutic agents, by which their action has 
been much elucidated. 
On JPlnnts.' —Marcet and Brunton have separately tried 
the effects of digitalis on the haricot bean by watering 
the plant with an infusion, and found it to kill it by 
withering it up. The writer injected a strong infusion 
into the hollow stems of the ordinary bean without effect 
for days; in time, however, those so treated withered 
and died, contrasting with those not • interfered with. 
Precisely the same results ensued from similar injections 
into the orange lily. A lettuce was frequently watered, 
in a dry season too, with a strong solution, without any 
perceptible injury to it either soon or late. Another 
was then dug up by the roots, and placed in a large basin 
containing a strong infusion of foxglove, and for a day 
or two grew amazingly; on the fourth day, it commenced 
to wither, and died in a day or two. The first effect of 
the drug was to improve the appearance of the plants to 
which it was administered; an impression to the same 
effect'remains in the minds of friends who witnessed the 
experiments. Strong infusions were injected into the 
stem of the rasp, and into holes bored into a plum-tree 
without apparent effect. 
On Invertebrcita. —Snails, when touched with the tinc¬ 
ture or strong infusion, took a contractile spasm, threw 
off a coating of mucus, and passed on apparently unaf¬ 
fected. Earth-worms, when placed in an infusion for a 
short time, did not appear incommoded. Wasps were 
not affected by it when applied to them. 
On Fishes .—Minnows, when placed in an infusion of 
,digitalis, a very weak one, for some minutes were not 
affected ; then commenced a rapid movement of the gills, 
which lasted till death; they were also drawn to one 
side in dying. After death, the ventricle was found 
firmly contracted and glistening like a speck of gristle; 
and, on being examined under the microscope, no cavity 
was visible. The auricle was distended and vainly tried 
to drive any blood into the tightly contracted ventricle, 
tho blood merely regurgitating into the venous sinus 
behind, and then flowing back again, from the venous 
distension relieving itself on the auricular diastole. On 
pricking the venous sinus so as to permit the escape of 
the contaminated blood, the auricle soon also became 
firmly contracted, and no cavity was perceptible under 
the microscope. The quickened action of the gills was 
probably due to the accumulation of carbonic acid in the 
blood, giving rise to an increased necessity for breathing, 
while the firmly contracted ventricle prevented the flow 
of .blood to the branchiae, and cut it off from oxygena¬ 
tion. 
On Birds .—About half a drachm of strong infusion of 
digitalis was passed down the throats of two sparrows, 
some being spilled during the process. The animals soon 
became unable to move much, and gasped for breath 
most vigorously. The hen died first, and the cock died 
hard in about half an hour. On opening them imme¬ 
diately on death, the left ventricle in each was found 
firmly contracted; the lungs so congested as almost to 
be hepatized ; the right ventricle full of blood. It was 
evident that the condition of the lungs and right ventri¬ 
cle was due to inability to drive the blood into the con¬ 
tracted left venti’icle. The gorged condition of the lungs 
accounted for the gasping respiration observed. Side by 
side with them, ten drops of Fleming's tincture of aconite 
were administered to a third sparrow, who became con¬ 
vulsed, and died in about one minute and a half. In it, 
the lungs were pale, and the heart completely paralysed 
and distended, looking like a small Barcelona nut. The 
contrast between the two conditions was marked. 
On Mammals .—Experiments have been made on the 
higher animals by Handfield Jones and Fuller, with 
similar effects as regards the state of the heart after 
death. 
[To be continued.) 
DISINFECTION.* 
No. III. 
The principle we have laid down—that we should not 
seek to remove impurities from the atmosphere by means 
of disinfectants, but that we should hinder the pollution 
of the atmosphere by applying disinfectants to surfaces 
which are befouling it—has never yet been sufficient^ in¬ 
sisted upon, and is diametrically in opposition to much 
that passes current at the present day. History, too, re¬ 
cords curious examples of the contrary procedure. In Dr. 
Angus Smith’s book ‘ On Disinfectants,’ wo read that in 
1780 Dr. Carmichael Smyth used nitrous fumes for disin¬ 
fecting purposes in Winchester, and afterwards in the 
Fleet; and in the year 1802 was rewarded by Parliament 
with a vote of £5000 for his services. 
The impracticability of dealing with the atmosphere by 
disinfectants can, notwithstanding, be very readily shown. 
Every chemist who calls to mind the extreme difficulty 
with which a comparatively small volume of gas is de¬ 
prived of traces of impurities (for instance, the trace of 
carbonic acid naturally present in the atmosphere) will 
comprehend the immense practical difficulty of purifying 
the atmosphere of a dwelling-room by means of reagents 
which act by absorption; whilst the necessity, when 
dealing with the air of a dwelling-room, of not adding 
so much corrosive or stinking chemical to it as to make 
it unfit to breathe, is a complete bar to our attempting 
either the destruction of aerial poisons or the killing of 
aerial germs by the addition of powerful volatile che¬ 
micals to the atmosphere. When we add to the atmo¬ 
sphere of a room a sufficient proportion of an ordinary 
gaseous disinfectant to act on the atmospheric impurities, 
we render it unfit to breathe, and fit only to be sent up 
the chimney. All those mixtures for generating chlo- 
l’ine in dishes exposed in the sick-room, all the cloths 
soaked in liquid disinfectants and hung up in the room, 
are more or less futile for the purpose for which they are 
intended. In this general condemnation we do not in¬ 
clude the use of disinfectant cloths to block up window 
or doorway communicating between the sick-chamber 
and the rest of the house. This we regard as quite legi¬ 
timate, and as helping to isolate the patient. 
In the selection of' disinfectants for use in the sick¬ 
room, we should prefer such as are non-volatile and des¬ 
titute of smell,—such, in fact, as will not themselves defile 
the air. For this reason, among others, bleaching powder 
and carbolic acid are not so suitable as some other dis¬ 
infectants. Copperas and chloralum, possessing the re¬ 
quisite qualifications of being non-volatile and odourless, 
and being at the same time active disinfectants, are 
mentioned in the Oxford Disinfection Minute, which we 
have already referred to, and from which we quote the 
following :— 
* Reprinted from the Lancet, Oct. 14, 1871. 
