336 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 399 . 
convulsion, the breathing was suspended, and he lost consciousness. 
Again coming to himself, he had several convulsions, and a physician 
who was summoned found him in general tetanus. There were first 
clonic, then tonic convulsions, and finally opisthotonus was fully 
developed. The treatment consisted of emetics, and afterwards tannin 
and codeine were given separately. The patient slept at short intervals ; 
in ten hours after the taking of the poison the seizures were fewer in 
number and weaker in character, and by the third day recovery was 
complete. Dr Macredy 1 has also placed on record an interesting case, 
in which the symptoms, from a not very large dose of strychnine, were 
delayed by laudanum for eight hours. A young woman, 23 years 
of age, pregnant, took at 10 a.m. a quantity of strychnine estimated 
at 1*5 grain, in the form of Battle’s vermin-killer, and immediately after¬ 
wards 2 ounces of laudanum. She was seen by Dr Macredy in four 
hours, and was then suffering from pronounced narcotic symptoms. A 
sulphate of zinc emetic was administered. In eight hours after taking 
the strychnine, there were first observed some clonic convulsive move¬ 
ments of the hands, and, in a less degree, the legs. These convulsions 
continued, at times severe, for several hours, and were treated with 
chloral. Recovery was speedy and complete. 
In a similar case related by Dr Harrison, 2 a man, aged 54, took a 
packet of Battle’s vermin-killer, mixed with about a drachm and a half 
of laudanum and some rum. At the time he had eaten no food for days, 
and had been drinking freely ; yet fifty minutes elapsed before the 
usual symptoms set in, and no medical treatment was obtained until 
four hours after taking the dose. He was then given chloral and other 
remedies, and made a rapid recovery. 
§ 399. Action on Animals. —The action of strychnine has been experi¬ 
mentally studied on all classes of animals, from the infusoria upwards. 
The effects produced on animal forms which possess a nervous system 
are strikingly alike, and even in the cephalopoda tetanic muscular spasm 
may be readily observed. Of all animals, the frog shows the action of 
strychnine in its purest form, especially if a dose be given of just suffi¬ 
cient magnitude to produce toxic effects. The frog sits perfectly still 
and quiet, unless acted upon by some external stimulus, such as a breath 
of air, a loud noise, or the shaking of the vessel which contains it; then 
an immediate tetanic convulsion of all the muscles is witnessed, lasting 
a few seconds only, when the animal again resumes its former posture. 
This heightened state of reflex action has its analogue in hydrophobia as 
well as in idiopathic tetanus. If the frog thus poisoned by a weak dose 
is put under a glass shade, kept moist, and sheltered from sound or from 
other sources of irritation, no convulsions occur, and after some days it is 
in its usual health. If, on the other hand, by frequent stimuli, convul- 
1 Lancet, November 28, 1882. 2 Lancet, May 13, 1882. 
