380 poisons: their effects and detection. [§§444,445. 
more likely to occur after taking the root or the ordinary medicinal pre¬ 
parations. A dilated state of the pupil is by no means constant, and 
not to be relied upon. Diarrhoea is seen after taking the root or tincture 
by the stomach, but is often absent. In short, the only constant symp¬ 
toms are difficulty of breathing, progressive muscular weakness, generally 
vomiting, and a weak intermittent pulse. 
§ 444. Physiological Action. —Aconitine, according to Dr S. Kinger, 
is a protoplasmic poison, destroying the functions of all nitrogenous 
tissue—first of the central nervous system, next of*the nerves, and last 
of the muscles. Aconitine without doubt acts powerfully on the heart, 
ultimately paralysing it; there is first a slowing of the pulse, ascribed to 
a central excitation of the vagus ; then a quickening, due to paralysis of 
the peripheral termination of the vagus in the heart; lastly, the heart’s 
action becomes slow, irregular, and weak, and the blood-pressure sinks. 
The dyspnoea and convulsions are the usual result, seen among all warm¬ 
blooded animals, of the heart affection. Plugge found that the motor 
nerves, and more especially their intra-muscular terminations, were 
always paralysed ; but if the dose was small the paralysis might be 
incomplete. Boehm and Wartmann, on the other hand, considered that 
the motor paralysis had a central origin, a view not supported by recent 
research. The action of aconitine in this way resembles that of curare. 
The muscles themselves preserve their irritability, even after doses of 
aconitine which are five to ten times larger than those by which the 
nerve terminations are paralysed. 
§ 445. Post-mortem Appearances. —Among animals (mammals) the 
appearances most constantly observed have been hypersemia of the 
cerebral membranes and brain, a fulness of the large veins, the blood 
generally fluid—sometimes hypersemia of the liver, sometimes not. 
When aconitine has been administered subcutaneously, there have been 
no inflammatory appearances in the stomach and bowels. 
In the case of Dr Carl Meyer, who died in five hours from swallow¬ 
ing 4 mgrms. of aconitine nitrate, the corpse was of a marble paleness, 
the pupils moderately dilated. The colour of the large intestine was 
pale ; the duodenum was much congested, the congestion being most 
intense the nearer to the stomach ; the mucous membrane of the stomach 
itself was strongly hypersemic, being of an intense red colour ; the spleen 
was enlarged, filled with much dark blood. The liver and kidneys were 
deeply congested, the lungs also congested ; the right ventricle of the 
heart was distended with blood ; in the pericardium there was a quantity 
of bloody serum. The brain was generally blood-red ; in the cerebral 
hemispheres there were several large circumscribed subarachnoid extra¬ 
vasations. The substance of the brain on section showed many red 
bloody points. 
In a case recorded by Taylor, in which a man died in three hours 
