402 
DISEASES AMONG STOCK IN AUSTRALIA. 
mentalists have arrived at the conclusion that it acted ex¬ 
clusively on the muscular system, while another set have 
contended that the circulation alone was directly affected. 
The degree of purity of the nicotina may, in some measure, 
account for these differences. 
“ Convulsions are not a necessary attendant on this form of 
poisoning. There were none in the case of M. W—. They 
were observed in the experiment on a rabbit, but they were 
of a clonic, in place of a tetanic character. The temporary 
production of opisthotonos, however, proves that the spinal 
marrow* was affected by the poison. The effects produced 
on the rabbit show the fallacy of reiving upon the symptoms 
caused in animals as evidence of their character and course 
in the human subject. 
“It is evident from the case which is the subject of this 
paper, as well as from the experiment on the rabbit, that 
nicotina produces changes in the blood. The microscope 
shows no appreciable physical differences; but the colour 
and consistency of this liquid are entirely changed. The 
whole of the blood, arterial and venous, acquires a purple- 
black colour, and the fibrine appears to be dissolved or 
broken up. Is it to be inferred from its chemical constitu¬ 
tion that nicotina completely deoxidizes the blood with the 
rapidity with which it deoxidizes the solution of perman¬ 
ganate of potash, and that death is the immediate conse¬ 
quence of this universal deoxidation of the vital fluid ? When 
exposed to air it reabsorbs oxygen to a slight extent, and 
acquires a ruddy hue. These facts may theoretically account 
for the rapid action of this poison on the body; but in ad¬ 
dition to this mode of action, it appears to operate by causing 
a complete stagnation of the altered blood in the overfilled 
capillaries. In the case of M. W— the appearance of the 
various organs, as a result of capillary congestion, was such 
as I have never before seen. They appeared as if they had 
been dyed with a deep purple black dye. This condition, it 
must be remembered, is the result of the action of a poison 
in a few minutes —a period just sufficient for its circulation 
throughout the body. In the experiment on the rabbit the 
heart continued to beat, as in asphyxia, for a short time after 
all other vital actions had ceased; and this fact, viewed in 
connexion with the condition of the capillary system after 
death, appears to show that there is some foundation for the 
theoretical view ? of Bernard, namely, that this powerful poison 
destroys life by arresting the circulation from the circum¬ 
ference to the centre.” 
