for hops,—an adulteration which is prohibited in Britain by severe statutes. It has been analyzed by M. Boullay of Paris,[1] who found in it besides other matters, a peculiar principle termed picrotoxin. This principle constitutes, according to Boullay, about a fifth part of the kernel; according to Nees von Esenbeck, only a hundreth part:[2] and my own experiments agree with the results of the latter. It is moderately soluble in water, and crystallizes readily from a hot acidulous watery solution. It is more soluble in hot alcohol, from which it crystallizes in granular masses. Ten grains of it killed a dog in twenty-five minutes in the second paroxysm of tetanus.
The seeds themselves occasion vomiting soon after they are swallowed; so that animals may often swallow them, if not without injury, at all events without danger. But if the gullet be tied, the animal soon begins to stagger; the eye acquires a peculiar haggard expression, which is the sure forerunner of a tetanic paroxysm; and the second, third, or fourth fit commonly proves fatal. Three or four drachms will kill a dog when introduced into the stomach; less will suffice when it is applied to a wound; and still less when it is injected into a vein.[3] Wepfer has related a good experiment, from which he infers that Cocculus indicus acts by exhausting the irritability of the heart. In the intervals of the fits the pulse could not be felt; and on opening the chest immediately after death, he found the heart montionless and all its cavities distended.[4] Orfila also sometimes found the heart motionless, and its left cavities filled with reddish-brown blood.[5]
This poison does not seem to possess distinct acrid properties in regard to animals. M. Goupil indeed found that it produced vomiting and purging,[6] but Orfila could not observe any such effect. According to Goupil it possesses the singular property of communicating to the flesh of animals, more particularly of fish, that have been killed with it, some of the poisonous qualities with which it is itself endowed. The accuracy of this statement may be doubted, the alleged fact being contrary to analogy. Besides, this poison has been used immemorially in the East for taking fish; and it is familiarly used for the same purpose in some parts of France, though prohibited by statute. Chevallier mentions that in a particular parish the inhabitants live half the year on fish caught with this poison; and that a friend of his made trial of fish so caught, without the slightest injury.[7]
Symptoms in Man.—Although it is well known that malt liquors have often been adulterated with Cocculus indicus for the purpose of economizing hops, cases of poisoning in the human subject are rare, because the quantity required to communicate the due degree of bitterness is small. Professor Bernt has shortly noticed a set of cases, which arose in consequence of an idiot having seasoned soup with it
