394 poisons : their effects and detection. [§ 458. 
sensibility ; man seems the most sensitive of all, next to man come the 
carnivora, while the herbivora, and especially the rodents, offer a con¬ 
siderable resistance. According to Falck, the lethal dose for a rabbit 
is at least *79 mgrm. per kilo. It is the general opinion that rabbits may 
eat sufficient of the belladonna plant to render their flesh poisonous, 
and yet the animals themselves may show no disturbance in health ; but 
this must not be considered adequately established. Speaking very 
generally, the higher the animal organisation the greater the sensibility 
to atropine. Frogs are affected in a peculiar manner. According to 
the researches of Fraser, 1 the animal is first paralysed, and some hours 
after the administration of the poison lies motionless, the only signs of 
life being the existence of a slight movement of the heart and muscular 
irritability. After a period of from forty-eight to seventy-two hours, 
the fore limbs are seized with tetanic spasms, which develop into a 
strychnine-like tetanus. 
§ 458. Action on Man. —When atropine is injected subcutaneously, 
the symptoms, as is usually the case with drugs administered in this 
manner, may come on immediately, the pupil not infrequently dilating 
almost before the injection is finished. This is in no way surprising ; 
but there are instances in which decoctions of datura seeds have been 
administered by the stomach, and the commencement of symptoms has 
been as rapid as in poisoning by oxalic or even prussic acid. In a case 
tried in India in July 1852, the prosecutor declared that, while a person 
was handing him a lota of water, the prisoner snatched it away on pre¬ 
tence of freeing the water from dirt or straws, and then gave it to him. 
He drank only two mouthfuls, and, complaining of the bitter taste, 
fell down insensible within forty yards of the spot where he had drunk, 
and did not recover his senses until the third day after. In another 
case, a man was struck down so suddenly that his feet were scalded by 
some hot water which he was carrying.— Chevers. 
When the seeds, leaves, or fruit of atropine-holding plants are eaten, 
there is, however, a very appreciable period before the symptoms com¬ 
mence, and, as in the case of opium poisoning, no very definite rule can 
be laid down, but usually the effects are experienced within half an hour. 
The first sensation is dryness of the mouth and throat; this continues 
increasing, and may rise to such a degree that the swallowing of liquids 
is an impossibility. The difficulty in swallowing does not seem to be 
entirely dependent on the dry state of the throat, but is also due to a 
spasmodic contraction of the pharyngeal muscles. Tissore 2 found in 
one case such constriction that he could only introduce emetics by pass¬ 
ing a catheter of small diameter. The mucous membrane is reddened, 
1 Trans. Roy. Roc. Edin ., xxv. 449; Journ. of Anat. and Physiol., May 1869, 
p. 357. 
2 Gaz. hebd., 1856. 
