488 poisons: their effects and detection. [§§ 634 , 635 . 
XIII.—The Toxalbumins of Castor-Oil Seeds and of Abrus. 
§ 634. The Toxalbumin of Castor-Oil Seeds.— In castor-oil seeds, 
besides the well-known purgative oil, there exists an albuminous body 
intensely poisonous, which has been carefully investigated by Stillmark , 1 
undei the direction of Kobert . 2 Injected into the circulation it is more 
poisonous than strychnine, prussic acid, or arsenic 5 and since the pressed 
seeds are without taste or smell, this poison has peculiar dangers of 
its own. 
It is essentially a blood poison, coagulating the blood. 
The blood, if carefully freed from all fibrin, is yet again brought to 
coagulation by a small amount of this body. 
If castor-oil seeds are eaten, a portion of the poison is destroyed bv 
the digestive processes ; a part is not thus destroyed, but is absorbed, 
and produces in the blood-vessels its coagulating property. Where this 
takes place, ulcers naturally form, because isolated small areas are 
deprived of their blood supply. These areas thus becoming dead, may 
be digested by the gastric or intestinal fluids, and thus, weeks after, 
death may be produced. The symptoms noted are nausea, vomiting, 
colic, diarrhoea, tenesmus, thirst, hot skin, frequent pulse, sweats, 
headache, jaundice, and death in convulsions or from exhaustion. 
Animals may be made immune by feeding them carefully with s m all 
doses, gradually increased. 
The post-mortem appearances are ulceration in the stomach and 
intestines. In animals the appearances of haemorrhagic gastro-enteritis, 
with diffuse nephritis, haemorrhages in the mesentery, and so forth, have 
been found. 
§ 635. Toxalbumin of Abrus.— A toxalbumin is found in the Abrus 
precatorius (Jequirity) which causes quite similar effects and symptoms. 
That it is not identical is proved by the fact that, though animals mav 
become immune by repeated doses of jequirity against “ abrin,” the 
similai substance from castor-oil seeds only confers immunity against 
the toxalbumin of those seeds, and not against abrin ; and similarly 
abrin confers no immunity against the castor albumin. Either of these 
substances applied to the conjunctiva produces coagulation in the 
vessels and a secondary inflammation, to which in the case of jequirity 
has been given the name of “ jequirity-ophthalmia.” 3 
The general effect of these substances, and, above all, the curious fact 
that a person may acquire by use a certain immunity from otherwise fatal 
doses, is so similar to poisonous products evolved in the system of persons 
suffering from infectious fevers that they have excited of late years much 
3 .Stillmark, Dorp. Arb., Bd. iii., 1889. 2 Robert’s Lehrbuch, pp. 453-456. 
- Heinr. Hellin, Der giftiqe Ehveisskor per-Abrin u. seine Wirhung auf das Blut 
Inaug.-Diss., Dorpat, 1891. 
