424 
Di gitalin. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
Aug.,  1892. 
appear  to  have  any  effect.  But  when  injected  subcutaneously,  the 
dog  refused  to  eat  for  two  days,  was  very  irritable,  and  would  not 
suffer  the  injected  places  to  be  touched.  At  the  end  of  the  third 
day  large  pieces  of  skin  were  detached  from  the  places  injected,  as 
if  cut  out  with  a  knife  down  to  the  muscles  of  the  back,  and 
abscesses  were  formed,  which  rapidly  healed. 
In  frogs,  also,  digitonin  produces  great  local  inflammation,  in 
consequence  of  which  these  more  sensitive  animals  rapidly  succumb. 
In  one  instance  marked  nervous  affection  was  noticed,  with  violent 
convulsions.1 
For  the  purpose -of  ascertaining  whether  pure  digitalin  would 
produce  local  irritation  when  administered  in  the  dose  requisite  for 
therapeutic  purposes,  Professor  Boehm  instituted  experiments  with 
the  same  healthy  dog  which  had  suffered  inflammatory  effects  from 
the  injection  of  digitonin.  The  animal  was  subcutaneously  injected 
with  3  milligrammes  of  digitalin,  dissolved  in  I  cc.  of  water,  with  a 
few  drops  of  spirit.  The  dose  was  strong  enough  to  produce  a 
powerful  effect,  which  lasted  for  nearly  24  hours ;  but  at  the  place 
of  injection  there  was  not  the  slightest  inflammation  or  other 
change  to  be  detected.  It  may,  therefore,  be  concluded  that  true 
digitalin  does  not  produce  inflammation  when  administered  in  the 
dose  requisite  for  exerting  its  full  general  action,  and,  therefore, 
trial  of  subcutaneous  injections  will  be  admissible  in  the  human 
subject. 
Moreover,  this  experience  justifies  the  assumption  that  the  sub- 
stances associated  with  digitalin  and  present  in  the  preparations 
hitherto  met  with  in  commerce,  as  well  as  in  the  infusion  and  digi- 
talis powder,  contribute  to  the  production  of  the  so-called  cumula- 
tive effects. 
It  must  be  admitted  that  digitalin  has  one  essentially  dark  side 
in  its  want  of  crystallizability,  and  this  I  have  endeavored  in  various 
ways  to  find  a  remedy  for.  The  chief  obstacle  encountered  was  the 
fact  that  even  slight  chemical  alteration  of  the  substance  completely 
destroys  its  activity.  Thus,  for  instance,  when  digitalin  is  heated 
only  for  a  few  minutes  with  acetic  anhydride  a  finely  crystallizable 
product  is  obtained,  the  analysis  of  which  shows  that  it  has  the 
1  This  observation  justifies  the  desire  already  expressed,  that  the  name  of 
"  crystalline  digitalin  "  should  no  longer  be  applied  to  a  preparation  consisting 
almost  entirely  of  digitonin. — See  Berichte,  xxiv,  3953. 
