Amjiiy"i8P96arm'}       Preparations  of  Strophantus.  357 
normal.  Another  10  c.c.  given ;  half  a  minute  after,  the  pressure 
was  1 8  mm.  above  the  normal.  It  then  began  to  fall  and  continued 
to  do  so. 
Experiment  6. — Dog  ;  weight,  14  kilos. 
Injected  into  the  jugular.  Pressure  very  high ;  5  c.c.  given ; 
thirteen  minutes  after,  another  5  c.c.  given ;  eight  minutes  later,  8 
c.c.  given.  During  the  whole  of  this  time  the  pressure  was  below 
the  normal — from  10  to  20  mm.  After  the  third  injection  the  pres- 
sure began  to  rise,  and  in  three  minutes  was  15  above  the  normal, 
and  stayed  at  1 5  to  20  above  the  normal  for  two  minutes  longer, 
when  it  began  to  fall,  and,  three  minutes  later,  was  below  the  nor- 
mal. 10  c.c.  given,  followed  by  rapid  fall  of  pressure,  and  death 
from  cardiac  arrest  in  three  minutes. 
Experiment  J. — Dog;  weight,  8-5  kilos. 
Injected  into  the  jugular.  Pressure  very  high;  3  c.c.  given; 
pressure  rose  immediately.  In  three  minutes  was  20  above  the  nor- 
mal. Two  minutes  later,  5  c.c.  given.  During  the  next  nine  min- 
utes the  pressure  varied  considerably,  but  was,  on  the  average,  15 
above  the  normal.  5  c.c.  given,  pressure  rose  in  a  minute  to  30 
above  the  normal.  During  the  next  nine  minutes  the  average  was 
50  above  the  normal.  5  c.c.  then  given,  and  in  five  minutes  the 
animal  died  from  tetanus. 
It  is  not  necessary  for  our  present  purpose  to  discuss  these  experi- 
ments in  detail;  they  are  sufficient  to  show  that  the  commercial 
strophanthin,  as  put  upon  the  market  by  manufacturers  of  the  first- 
class,  is  an  extremely  active  substance. 
As  long  ago  as  1888,  Rothziegel  and  Koralzewski  reported  the 
results  of  the  use  of  strophanthin  in  forty-four  cases  of  disease.  They 
state  that  the  influence  of  very  small  doses,  o  0002  to  0-0003  gramme, 
is  distinctly  perceptible  in  an  increase  of  the  force  of  the  pulse  in  from 
five  to  ten  minutes ;  but  that  usually  in  cardiac  cases  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  irregularity  of  the  heart's  action  was  not  perceived  until 
the  second  or  third  day  of  treatment ;  that  when  there  was  dysp- 
noea from  cardiac  disease,  the  difficulty  in  breathing  disappeared 
very  rapidly.  No  local  irritation  was,  in  their  experience,  produced 
by  the  hypodermic  injections  of  as  much  as  5  decimilligrammes  of 
the  strophanthin.    They  ordinarily  gave  from  I  to  3  milligrammes 
