396 poisons : their effects and detection. [§ 450. 
a supplicating posture. When approached he suddenly shrinks back as 
if apprehensive of being struck, and frequently he moves about as if to 
avoid spectra. But the most invariable accompaniment of the final 
stage of delirium, and frequently also that of sopor, is in the incessant 
picking at real or imaginary objects. At one time the patient seizes 
hold of parts of his clothes or bedding, pulls at his fingers and toes, 
takes up dirt and stones from the ground, or as often snatches at 
imaginary objects in the air, on his body, or anything near him. Very 
frequently he appears as if amusing himself by drawing out imaginary 
threads from the ends of his fingers, and occasionally his antics are so 
varied and ridiculous, that I have seen his near relatives, although 
apprehensive of danger, unable to restrain their laughter.’' 1 This 
active delirium passes into a somnolent state with muttering, catching 
at the bedclothes or at floating spectra, and in fatal cases the patient 
dies in this stage. As a rule, the sleep is not like opium coma ; there 
is complete insensibility in both, but in the one the sleep is deep, 
without muttering, in the other, from atropine, it is more like the 
stupor of a fever. The course in fatal cases is rapid, death generally 
taking place within six hours. If a person live over seven or eight 
hours, he usually recovers, however serious the symptoms may appear. 
On waking, the patient remembers nothing of his illness ; mydriasis 
remains some time, and there may be abnormality of speech and weak¬ 
ness of the limbs, but within four days health is re-established. In 
cases where the seeds have been swallowed, the symptoms may be much 
prolonged, and they seem to continue until all the seeds have been 
voided—perhaps this is due to the imperfect but continuous extraction 
of atropine by the intestinal juices. 
Chronic poisoning by atropine may, from what has been stated, be of 
great importance in India. It is probable that its continuous effect 
would tend to weaken the intellect, and there is no reason for any in¬ 
credulity with regard to its power as a factor of insanity. Rossbach 
has ascertained that if dogs are, day after day, dosed with atropine, 
they become emaciated ; but a certain tolerance is established, and the 
dose has to be raised considerably after a time to produce any marked 
physiological effect. 
§ 459. Physiological Action of Atropine. —Atropine as well as 
muscarine exercises a profound influence on the nervous apparatus of the 
heart; the innervation affected may be clearly appreciated by referring 
to the accompanying figure, which is a representation of Schmiedeberg’s 
diagrammatic “ schema.” F is the heart muscle ; M the vaso-motor 
centre; H the brake or skid centre ( Hemmungszentrum ) ; B the 
1 In an English case of belladonna poisoning, the patient, a tailor, sat for four 
hours, moving his hands and arms as if sewing, and his lips as if talking, but with¬ 
out uttering a word. 
