92 
EDITORIAL. 
is  not  only  creditable  to  the  liberality  of  the  Association,  but  exhibits  an 
amount  of  labor  and  attention  on  the  part  of  the  Executive  Committee 
that  merits  the  warm  approval  of  the  members. 
An  Inaugural  Dissertation  on  Strychnia: — presented  to  the  Medical  Faculty 
of  McGill  College,  May  1st,  1858,  prior  to  receiving  the  degree  of  Doctor 
in  Medicine  and  Surgery.  By  Alexander  P.  Reid.  Montreal :  1858. 
pp.  39,  octavo. 
The  author  of  this  Essay  appears  to  have  given  a  careful  stady  to  the  im- 
portant subject  which  he  treats,  and  goes  over  the  whole  ground  of  its  his- 
tory, preparation,  characters,  tests,  physiological  effects  on  vegetables  and 
animals,  post  mortem  appearances,  uses,  administration,  and  antidotes. 
About  a  third  of  the  work  is  devoted  to  the  sails  of  strychnia.  The  account 
of  these  is  very  detailed,  and  includes  thirty  distinct  compounds.  The 
author  found  ioduretted  iodide  of  potassium  the  most  sensitive  test  for 
strychnia,  producing  in  solutions  of  strychnia  a  very  insoluble  precipitate, 
to  which  he  gives  the  name  "Ioduretted  Hydriodate  of  Strychnia.*'  We 
should  like  to  make  a  number  of  extracts  from  this  Essay,  and  may  proba- 
bly recur  to  it  again,  but  the  following  will  give  a  good  idea  of  the  author's 
style  and  method.  Speaking  of  the  proposed  antidotes  to  strychnia,  he  ob- 
serves : 
"Since  it  is  so  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  get  any  chemical  antidote,  I 
have  thought  that  some  agent  might  be  met  with  which  would  counteract  it 
physiologically. 
Such  an  agent  I  expected  to  find  in  hydrocyanic  acid  :  it  acts  in  general 
in  a  contrary  manner  to  that  of  strychnia,  causing  at  times  rather  paralysis 
than  spasm.  Accordingly,  I  placed  one-sixth  of  a  grain  under  the  skin  of 
the  back  of  a  cat,  and  when  the  convulsions  became  apparent,  and  respira- 
tion had  almost  ceased,  I  poured  some  of  the  acid  on  the  same  spot.  In  a 
few  seconds  the  spasms  ceased,  and  the  limbs,  before  rigid  and  inflexible, 
became  quite  flaccid.  The  animal  appeared  to  be  profoundly  narcotised, 
but  it  began  to  respire  deeply  ;  the  parietes  of  the  chest  expanding  to  the 
fullest,  but  the  breathing  was  very  slow.  It  remained  in  this  state  for  several 
minutes,  but  gradually  the  respirations  became  weaker,  and  soon  ceased  in 
death.  The  effects  in  this  case  were  similar  to  those  mentioned  by  Pereira, 
who  used  conia  instead  of  prussic  acid.  I  tried  the  acid  on  others  that  had 
taken  the  alkaloid  by  the  stomach;  but  on  account  of  the  difficulty  ex- 
perienced in  introdncing  the  acid  into  the  stomach,  its  physiological  effects 
were  not  obtained.  However,  considering  all  things,  I  think  with  the  excep- 
tion of  chloroform  and  conium,  that  prussic  acid  is  the  best  antidote  we  have 
got ;  but  as  neither  the  acid  nor  conium  have  been  very  fully  inquired  into, 
their  relative  merits  can  scarcely  be  decided  on.  Of  the  two  prussic  acid 
has  the  advantage,  that  it  can  always  be  easily  obtained.'  In  its  use  we 
should  not  be  too  lavish,  as  it  even  exceeds  strychnia  in  energy,  and  should 
only  be  exhibited  in  small  quantities  at  a  time,  not  enough  to  be  directly 
poisonous.  It  should,  if  possible,  be  given  immediately  on  the  ingestion  of 
the  alkaloid,  or  as  soon  as  possible  afterwards.  It  might  have  the  effect  of 
deadening  the  sensibility  of  the  stomach  to  the  action  of  the  strychnia,  and 
thus  allow  of  time  to  try  the  stomach-pump,  or  emetics  if  this  were  not  at 
hand.    These  latter,  have  not,  however,  been  reported  upon  very  favorably. 
