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GEORGE J. GOUBEAUD. 
inal, such as debility, exhaustion, prostration, anorexia, etc. If 
the strychnine be boiled in water, after which there be added a 
small amount of alcohol, there need be no fear of a precipitate 
forming or a deterioration in strength. 
A few remarks concerning the mode of administration of the 
agents employed will be of value to those intending to employ 
this form of treatment: If the rules be carried out no fear need 
be entertained as far as bad results are concerned. They will 
lessen anxiety, time and trouble, and perhaps embarrassment. I 
use a four-drachm hypodermic syringe or one sufficient to hold 
one dose of the solution, and employ a large and strong hypo¬ 
dermic needle. It is very essential to have a strong needle. If 
a small and frail needle be used we will have the unpleasant 
task of hunting for half of a hypodermic needle in the muscu¬ 
lar and tracheal structures. Physiologists tell us that degluti¬ 
tion IS impossible unless there is something in the isthmus of 
the fauces to swallow in order that the act may be begun and 
completed. The substance entering the isthmus of the fauces 
stimulates all those normal and physiological contractions. 
Without that substance entering the isthmus of the fauces the 
act cannot and will not take place. Personal experimentation 
will prove this. We can make attempts at swallowing two or 
three times. Further than this we cannot cause the muscles of 
deglutition to contract. I do not think they ever gave intratra¬ 
cheal injections of the previously mentioned solution through a 
small needle. If they did I think they would have had an 
hour’s work dissecting out half of a hypodermic needle. Con¬ 
tractions do occur. I have seen the sterno-hyoideus muscle 
thrown into a violent spasmodic contraction, which lasted for 
over a minute. My hypodermic needle, the strongest which I 
could procure, was bent almost in half during this act. Elevate 
the head to about one-half of the arm’s length and insert the 
needle in about the centre of the cervical portion of the trachea. 
At this point the skin and trachea lie one over the other with a 
small expanse of the sterno-hyoideus muscle between. Feel for 
the space between the intratracheal rings. Slowly force the 
