ADe"cembrerP5o8°'!'     Chemical  Examination  of  Nutmeg.  579 
■  These  results,  whether  produced  by  nutmeg  itself,  or  by  myris- 
ticin  in  doses  up  to  1  c.c.  of  the  latter,  clearly  differ  from  the  recorded 
effects  of  nutmeg  on  man.  By  the  administration  of  rather  larger 
doses  of  myristicin  to  the  cat,  some  light  was  thrown  on  this  dis- 
crepancy. Thus  1.5  c.c.  of  myristicin,  given  by  the  mouth  to  a  cat 
of  3  kilogrammes,  produced  after  a  few  hours  a  condition  not  unlike 
that  described  by  Wallace,  as  reported  by  Cushny.  The  animal 
showed  considerable  excitement,  together  with  some  incoordination, 
and  avoided  obstacles  imperfectly.  The  pupils  were  dilated.  No 
actual  stupor  or  narcosis,  however,  was  observed,  but  the  excite- 
ment was  succeeded  on  the  following  day  by  a  condition  of  unusual 
quietness.  The  second  day  after  administration  the  cat  became 
deeply  jaundiced,  comatose,  and  died.  A  post-mortem  examination 
showed  very  advanced  fatty  degeneration  of  the  liver.  Another  cat, 
to  which  2  c.c.  of  myristicin  were  given,  showed  marked  excitement 
and  incoordination  about  half  an  hour  after  administration.  It  then 
became  unconscious  and  lay  narcotized  for  about  three  hours,  but 
subsequently  recovered  consciousness,  and  the  primary  effects  grad- 
ually disappeared.  In  this  case  again,  after  an  interval  of  a  day 
without  symptoms,  jaundice  and  coma  appeared,  and  on  the  third 
day  after  administration  the  cat  died.  The  primary  effects — excite- 
ment, incoordination  and  narcosis — are  not  markedly  different  from 
the  effects  reported  to  be  produced  by  nutmeg  in  man.  Apart  from 
the  question  of  dosage,  the  difference,  in  any  case,  is  not  greater 
than  that  observed  in  other  drugs  affecting  principally  the  brain. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  remote  effects  of  myristicin,  including  the 
terminal  coma,  may  with  considerable  probability  be  regarded  as 
secondary  to  the  degenerative  changes  in  the  liver.  In  man  the  dose 
necessary  to  produce  narcosis  is  too  small  to  lead  to  these  remote 
bad  results,  while  in  the  much  less  sensitive  cat  a  dose  which  is 
large  enough  to  cause  the  primary  cerebral  symptoms  causes  also 
extensive  liver  changes,  and  is  therefore  ultimately  fatal. 
The  main  discrepancy  between  the  results  produced  by  nutmeg 
on  the  one  hand  and  those  produced  by  myristicin  on  the  other  is 
that  due  to  dosage.  It  would  be  quite  reasonable  to  attribute  all 
the  effects  of  nutmeg  on  the  cat  to  myristicin,  but  for  the  fact  that 
the  dose  of  nutmeg  sufficient  to  cause  death  in  a  few  days  represents 
a  quantity  of  myristicin  which,  given  by  the  mouth,  produces  no 
appreciable  effect.  It  seems  possible,  however,  that  the  discrepancy 
may  be  explained  by  a  consideration  of  the  conditions  of  absorption. 
Thus  the  failure  to  obtain  an  effect  with  small  doses  of  myristicin 
