STRYCHNINE. 
335 
Now, the important question arises as to the place in this series 
occupied by man—a question difficult to solve, because so few cases 
are recorded in which strychnine has been administered by subcutaneous 
injection with fatal result. Eulenberg has observed poisonous symptoms, 
but not death, produced by 6 mgrms. ( T y grain) and by 10 mgrms. 
(about J grain). Bois observed poisonous symptoms from the similar 
subcutaneous administrations of 8 mgrms. to a child 6 years old, and 
4 mgrms. to another child 4 years old—the latter dose, in a case recorded 
by Christison, actually killing a child of 3 years of age. On the other 
hand, the smallest lethal dose taken by an adult was swallowed in solution. 
Dr Warner took 32 mgrms. (J grain) of strychnine sulphate, mistaking 
it for morphine sulphate, and died in twenty minutes. In other cases 
48 mgrms. ( T 7 ^ grain) have been fatal. It will be safe to conclude that 
these doses by the stomach would have acted still more surely and ener¬ 
getically if injected subcutaneously. The case of Warner is exceptional, 
for he was in weak health; and, if calculated out according to body weight, 
presuming that Dr Warner weighed 68 kilos., the relative dose as strych¬ 
nine nitrate would be -4 mgrm. per kilo.—a smaller dose than for any 
animal hitherto experimented upon. There is, however, far more reason 
for believing that the degree of sensitiveness in man is about the same 
as that of cats or dogs, and that the least fatal dose for man is -70 per 
kilo., the facts on record fairly bearing out this view. It is, therefore, 
probable that death would follow if 48 mgrms. (jV grain) were injected 
subcutaneously into a man of the average weight of 68 kilos. (150 lbs.). 
Taylor estimates the fatal dose of strychnine for adults as from 32-4 
to 129*6 mgrms. (*5 to 2 grains) ; Guy puts the minimum at 16*2 mgrms. 
(•25 grain). 
Large doses of strychnine may be recovered from if correct medical 
treatment is sufficiently prompt. Witness the remarkable instances on 
record of duplex poisonings, in which the would-be suicide has unwit¬ 
tingly defeated his object by taking strychnine simultaneously with some 
narcotic, such as opium or chloral. In a case related by Schauenstein, 1 
a suicidal pharmacist took *48 grm. to *6 grm. (7*4 to 9*25 grains) of 
strychnine nitrate dissolved in about 30 c.c. of bitter-almond water, and 
then, after half an hour, since no symptoms were experienced, *6 grm. 
(9*25 grains) of morphine acetate, which he likewise dissolved in bitter- 
almond water and swallowed. After about ten minutes, he still could 
walk with uncertain steps, and poured some chloroform on the pillow¬ 
case of his bed, and lay on his face in order to breathe it. In a short 
time he lost consciousness, but again awoke, and lay in a half-dreamy 
state, incapable of motion, until someone entered the room and, hearing 
him murmur, came to his bedside. At that moment—two and a quarter 
hours after first taking the strychnine—the pharmacist had a fearful 
1 Maschka’s Handbuch, from Tschepke, Deutsche Klinik, 18(51. 
