Chemical examination and physiological action of nutmeg / by Frederick B. Power and Arthur H. Salway.

  • Power, Frederick B. (Frederick Belding), 1853-1927.
Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Chemical examination and physiological action of nutmeg / by Frederick B. Power and Arthur H. Salway. 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.

    19/20 (page 579)
    These results, whether produced by nutmeg itself, or by myris- ticin in doses up to i c.c. of the latter, clearly differ from the recorded effects of nutmeg on man. By the administration of rather larger doses of myristicin to the cat, some light was thrown on this dis- crepancy. Thus 1.5 c.c. of myristicin, given by the mouth to a cat of 3 kilogrammes, produced after a few hours a condition not unlike that described by Wallace, as reported by Cushny. The animal showed considerable excitement, together with some incoordination, and avoided obstacles imperfectly. The pupils were dilated. No actual stupor or narcosis, however, was observed, but the excite- ment was succeeded on the following day by a condition of unusual quietness. The second day after administration the cat became deeply jaundiced, comatose, and died. A post-mortem examination showed very advanced fatty degeneration of the liver. Another cat, to which 2 c.c. of myristicin were given, showed marked excitement and incoordination about half an hour after administration. It then became unconscious and lay narcotized for about three hours, but subsequently recovered consciousness, and the primary effects grad- ually disappeared. In this case again, after an interval of a day without symptoms, jaundice and coma appeared, and on the third day after administration the cat died. The primary effects—excite- ment, incoordination and narcosis—are not markedly different from the effects reported to be produced by nutmeg in man. Apart from the question of dosage, the difference, in any case, is not greater than that observed in other drugs affecting principally the brain. On the other hand, the remote effects of myristicin, including the terminal coma, may with considerable probability be regarded as secondary to the degenerative changes in the liver. In man the dose necessary to produce narcosis is too small to lead to these remote bad results, while in the much less sensitive cat a dose which is large enough to cause the primary cerebral symptoms causes also extensive liver changes, and is therefore ultimately fatal. The main discrepancy between the results produced by nutmeg on the one hand and those produced by myristicin on the other is that due to dosage. It would be quite reasonable to attribute all the effects of nutmeg on the cat to myristicin, but for the fact that the dose of nutmeg sufficient to cause death in a few days represents a quantity of myristicin which, given by the mouth, produces no appreciable effect. It seems possible, however, that the discrepancy may be explained by a consideration of the conditions of absorption. Thus the failure to obtain an effect with small doses of myristicin