SUBSTANCE ANALOGOUS TO GUN COTTON. 
247 
Toxical effects. — On account of the unpleasant effects 
which this substance produces, it is almost impossible to 
find persons willing to make experiments with it, and even 
medical students are not over anxious to " gratify their cu- 
riosity." I have endeavored, while making my experi- 
ments, to avoid, as far as possible, all extraneous influences, 
and to make allowances where such might occur; but the 
position of a medical student is certainly not the one best 
calculated to conduct a series of experiments requiring so 
much care and precaution. 
In the majority of trials I have used one-third to one-half 
of a drop of the alcoholic tincture, but occasionally I have 
increased the dose when I wished to get more decided 
effects. It is safer, however, to use small doses, and repeat 
if necessary, for the effects produced by large doses are 
both unpleasant and dangerous. 
February \Sth. — Pulse at sixty-five beats per minute, 
and body free from any unpleasant sensations — took one- 
third of a drop of the alcoholic tincture. In thirty seconds 
the pulse had risen to eighty beats per minute. Disagree- 
able sensation of fulness in the forehead. In thirty seconds 
more the pulse was at ninety, and the pain in the forehead 
quite severe. No other symptoms were developed, and in 
half an hour the pulse had returned to seventy beats per 
minute, and the pain was entirely gone. I then repeated 
the dose. The pulse rose as before to ninety-five, the pain 
in the head became quite severe, and a sensation as if the 
eye-balls were being pushed out, was produced. When 
the symptoms began to abate I again repeated the dose. 
The pulse instantly rose to one hundred and twelve. Pain 
in the head intense. Eyes protruding and injected, scintil- 
lations as in head affections caused by disordered stomach. 
Fulness at the., base of the brain, and violent throbbing of 
all of the arteries of the head and neck. Labored action of 
the heart with a peculiar sense of oppression. I went into 
the open air, and in a short time the most striking symp- 
