and even fatal to all animals which are fed for a sufficient length of time with a moderate proportion of it, unless they escape its action by early vomiting; that dogs and cats, in consequence of discharging it by vomiting, suffer only slight symptoms of irritant poisoning;—but that swine, moles, geese, ducks, fowls, quails, sparrows, as well as leeches and flies, are sooner or later killed by it;—and that the symptoms it causes in beasts and birds are in the first instance giddiness, dilated pupil, and palsy, and afterwards diarrhœa, suppurating tumours, scattered gangrene throughout the body, and sometimes dropping off of the toes. Wiggers ascertained that nine grains of the substance he has considered its active principle occasioned in a fowl dulness, apparent suffering, gradually increasing feebleness, coldness and insensibility of the extremities, and in three days a fit of convulsions, ending in death.[1] Taddei lately found, that sparrows were killed by six grains of it in six or seven hours, with symptoms merely of great weakness, torpor, and indisposition to stir.[2]
Dr. Wright, whose experiments are the most extensive and precise yet made on this subject, found that a single dose, consisting of a strong infusion of between two drachms and a half and six drachms of ergot, if introduced into the jugular vein of a dog, occasions death, sometimes in a few minutes, sometimes not for more than two hours, with symptoms of alternating spasm and paralysis, occasionally a tendency to coma, and often depressed or irregular action of the heart, or even complete arrestment of its function;—that, when introduced into the cellular tissue, it produces inflammation and suppuration, sometimes circumscribed, sometimes diffuse, and always attended with an unhealthy discharge and great exhaustion;—and that, when admitted into the stomach, it excites irritation of the alimentary canal, excessive muscular prostration, at first excitability, but afterwards singular dulness or even complete obliteration of the senses, and occasional slight spasms; but that it is not a very active poison through this channel, as above three ounces are required to prove fatal to a dog. When it was administered in frequent small doses, he could not observe the effects remarked by Robert, but found that it induced a peculiar cachectic state, indicated by extreme muscular emaciation and weakness, loss of appetite, frequency of the pulse, repulsive fetor of the secretions and excretions, congestion of the alimentary mucous membrane, excessive contraction of the spleen, enlargement of the liver and absorbent glands, and non-formation of callus at the ends of fractured bones.[3]
With regard to its effects on man, it has been found by express experiment, that a single dose of two drachms excites giddiness, headache, flushed face, pain and spasms in the stomach, nausea, and vomiting, colic, purging, and a sense of weariness and weight in the limbs.[4] But it is not in this way that it has been usually introduced into the system; nor are these precisely the symptoms already hinted
