- cles, but on the contrary paralysis, and probably occasions death in
this way by suspending the respiration, in the same way as hemlock and conia. According to Emmert's experiments the spine only is acted on, and not the brain also.[1] Some remarkable experiments were made in 1839 by Mr. Waterton, to show the power of artificial respiration in accomplishing recovery from its effects. After the animals had fallen down motionless from the action of the poison introduced through a wound, and when the action of the heart had become so feeble as not to affect the pulse, artificial respiration, continued in one instance for seven hours and a half, and in another for two hours, had the effect of restoring the animals to health.[2]
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
OF POISONING WITH CAMPHOR, COCCULUS INDICUS, ETC.
The third group of the narcotico-acrids resemble strychnia in their
action so far, that they occasion in large doses convulsions of the
tetanic kind. But they differ considerably by producing at the same
time impaired sensibility or sopor. They are camphor, Cocculus
indicus, its active principle picrotoxin, the Coriara myrtifolia, the
Upas antiar, a Java poison, and perhaps also the yew-tree.
Of Poisoning with Camphor.
Camphor dissolved in oil soon causes in dogs paroxysms of tetanic spasm. At first the senses are entire in the intervals; but by degrees they become duller, till at length a state of deep sopor is established, with noisy laborious breathing, and expiration of camphorous fumes; and in this state the animal soon perishes. A solution of twenty grains in olive oil will kill a dog in less than ten minutes when injected into the jugular vein. When camphor is given to dogs in fragments, it does not excite convulsions, but kills them more slowly by inducing inflammation of the alimentary canal. These are the results of numerous experiments by Orfila.[3]
They are confirmed by others performed more lately by Scudery of Messina; but this experimentalist likewise remarked, that the convulsions were attended with a singular kind of delirium, which made the animals run up and down without apparent cause, as if they were maniacal. He also found the urinary organs generally affected, and for the most part with strangury.[4] Lebküchner discovered camphor in the blood of animals poisoned with it.[5]
Symptoms in Man.—The symptoms caused by camphor in man
