344 ON THE MEDICAL PROPERTIES OF DIGITALIS 
stance always the same, and which possessed constant properties. 
This result cannot but be desirable; for there is no surgeon who 
does not know that the effects of digitalis, often so useful, are 
nevertheless variable. 
We shall say nothing of the method of obtaining this substance, 
which is similar to other vegetable alkalies, and to which he gives 
the name of digitaline* 
We shall only relate some experiments which he gives of 
the action of digit aline on the animal frame. 
A grain of digitaline, dissolved in three drachms of distilled 
w r ater, was injected into the abdomen of a middle sized rabbit. 
At the expiration of a few minutes the respiration became slower; 
the pulse fell to sixty, and w as very irregular : all the symptoms 
of life were gradually extinguished ; and the animal died without 
agitation or pain, and as though it had fallen asleep. 
He afterwards injected into the veins of a cat half a grain of 
digitaline, dissolved in two drachms of lukew r arm water: the 
animal was dead in a quarter of an hour ; and the symptoms re¬ 
sembled those we have described. Just before he died the respi¬ 
ration fell to six or eight; the pulse w~as w eaker and more irregu¬ 
lar, and at last was entirely lost. 
A middle sized dog w as destroyed in fifty minutes by injecting 
in the jugular vein half an ounce of w ater containing a grain and 
a half of digitaline in solution. The arterial blood of the animals 
thus submitted to its powder presented a decided venous tint, and 
had very little tendency to coagulate. Examined by a micro¬ 
scope, the globules that it contained seemed, in the cat especially, 
a little changed in form, but not decomposed. 
It appears that the deleterious principle, dissolved in the blood, 
acts immediately on the nervous system. 
Nevertheless, an attentive examination of the brain and its de¬ 
pendences did not enable MM. Leroyer and Prevost to discover 
on what parts the digitaline principally acted: the cerebral sinuses 
were gorged w ith blood, but the cerebral substance did not appear 
to have undergone any alteration. Magendie concludes by saying, 
that it is much to be desired that the chemical and physiological 
experiments of M. Leroyer should be repeated. 
I administered six and a half ounces of digitalis, in the form of 
an electuary, to a horse aged fifteen years. The pulse, before the 
experiment, w as 39 or 40; two hours after it rose to 60, and four 
hours after to 150. The animal was depressed; the head hung low r ; 
the nasal membrane w as pale, while the buccal w^as red; the 
limbs trembled; he refused to eat, and laid down sometimes on 
one side, sometimes on the other; the ears and the limbs were 
cold, and the globe of the eye agitated with convulsive movements. 
