XI. Further experiments and observations on the action of poisons on the animal system. By B. C. Brodie, Esq. F. R. S. Communicated to the Society for the improvement of animal chemistry, and by them to the Royal Society

Abstract

Since I had the honour of communicating to the Royal Society some observations on the action of certain poisons on the animal system, I have been engaged in the further pro­secution of this inquiry. Besides some additional experiments on vegetable poisons, I have instituted several with a view to explain the effects of some of the more powerful poisons of the mineral kingdom. The former correspond in their results so nearly with those which are already before the public, that, in the present communication, I shall confine myself to those which appear to be of some importance, as they more par­ticularly confirm my former conclusions respecting the reco­very of animals apparently dead, where the cause of death operates exclusively on the nervous system. In my experi­ments on mineral poisons, I have found some circumstances wherein their effects differ from those of vegetable poisons, and of these I shall give a more particular account. What­ever may be the value of the observations themselves, the subject must be allowed to be one that is deserving of inves­tigation, as it does not appear unreasonable to expect that such investigation may hereafter lead to some improvements in the healing art. This consideration, I should hope, will be regarded as a sufficient apology for my pursuing a mode of inquiry by means of experiments on brute animals, of which we might well question the propriety, if no other purpose were to be answered by it than the gratification of curiosity. In my former communication on this subject, I entered into a detailed account of the majority of my experiments. This I conceived necessary, because in the outset of the inquiry I had been led to expect that even the same poison might not always operate precisely in the same manner; but I have since had abun­dant proof, that in essential circumstances there is but little variety in the effects produced by poisons of any description, when employed on animals of the same, or even of different species, beyond what may be referred to the difference in the quantity, or mode of application of the poison, or of the age and power of the animal. This will explain the reason of my not detailing, in the present communication, so many of the individual experiments from which my conclusions are drawn, as in the former; at the same time I have not been less care­ful to avoid drawing general conclusions from only a limited number of facts. Should these conclusions prove fewer, and of less importance than might be expected, such defects will, I trust, be regarded with indulgence; at least by those, who are aware of the difficulty of conducting a series of physiological experiments; of the time, which they necessarily occupy; of the numerous sources of fallacy and failure which exist; and of the laborious attention to the minutest circumstances, which is in consequence necessary in order to avoid being led into error.