THERAPEUTIC PROGRESS. 
249 
the fluid if the head be elevated for two or three minutes after 
injecting into the trachea, so as to prevent the solution dribbling 
back through the nostrils. For a medium-sized horse the dose 
may be regarded as one and a half grains, while two grains will 
answer for the largest animals; both of these doses should be 
combined with three grains of pilocarpine. Smaller doses (as one 
grain of eserine) will in the majority of cases prove useless. 
Eserine is soluble with difficulty in water, and for the required 
dose six or eight drachms of distilled water will be necessary. 
The amount of fluid which may be injected into the trachea with¬ 
out any evil effects is therefore considerable, and it is very quickly 
absorbed from the delicate mucous surface, while if subcuta¬ 
neously administered there is alwa} 7 s great loss of fluid where so 
much is necessary. The solution of the drug is facilitated by 
using warm water, the small tabloid being placed in a two-ounce 
ointment pot or other suitable vessel, a little water added, the 
tabloid crushed with a small glass rod or other instrument, more 
water being added, with continuous stirring, until the whole is 
dissolved. 
When the drug is introduced beneath the skin we may expect 
•it to act in about forty to sixty minutes. When intratrachially 
injected, the action may commence in twenty to twenty-five min¬ 
utes ; it is rarely delayed beyond an hour, while beneath the skin 
it has remained for an hour and a half before manifestations of 
its action were noticed. 
The physiological action of eserine alone is described as fol¬ 
lows : “ The earliest indications we have of the action of the 
drug are loud intestinal murmurs, passage of flatus, with slight 
colicy pain ; shortly this is followed by evacuation of the contents 
of the rectum, and the motions then pass at intervals of a few 
minutes, each becoming gradually softer, more watery, less formed 
in balls, until we reach the stage when the evacuations are moist 
and fluid, exactly representing cow’s faeces. All this time the ab¬ 
dominal disturbance has become greater, the animal lies down, 
but seldom rolls, the intestinal murmurs are louder, the passage 
of flatus almost continuous, straining marked, faeces are voided 
with great rapidity, often ejected with force, and several ounces 
