On impurities and mistakes / by T. Lauder Brunton.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On impurities and mistakes / by T. Lauder Brunton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    forward. In a few minutes more this jolly state of intoxication seemed to pass into another less agree- able form, and although still excited the dog became quieter, vomited, and then became less able to stand, fell about on one side or other. After this it shook rapidly and repeatedly as if from electric shocks, and then had convulsions both tonic and chronic, with slight dilatation of the pupils and projection of the eyes. It beat its head against the furniture, an action which it is difficult to explain, itnless it is possible that the poor creature was suffering from a headache, such as many human beings experience on the morning after a bank holiday. After a little while it got all right again. So far as I know, the effect of this drug has not been tested upon man, and so we do not know whether it has the same power of producing rapid intoxication, followed by staggering and headache, that it seems to produce in the dog. The next body, furfurol, is the aldehyde of the series. It is much more toxic than furfur-alcohol, and has quite a different effect upon the cerebrum. Instead of producing the pleasant jollity and excitement of furfur- alcohol, it seems to produce a kind of delirium, in which the animal seems at once suffering and furious. It howls and wishes to bite, as if it were mad, and this effect is succeeded by paralysis. Whether this sub- stance is allied to the actual poison existing in the nerve centres in rabies, and whether it has anything to do with the outbreak of fury leading to outrage or murder, which one reads of occasionally in the papers here, remains a subject for farther investigation. The other substances of the series are less interest- ing. Furfurcarbonic or pyromucic acid acts chiefly by weakening and paralysing the heart. Furfurine