On the anæsthetic properties of the lycoperdon proteus, or common puff-ball / by Benjamin W. Richardson.

  • Richardson, Benjamin Ward, 1828-1896.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the anæsthetic properties of the lycoperdon proteus, or common puff-ball / by Benjamin W. Richardson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    ing bees. In this diluted shape, the narcotic produces a modified class of symptoms. Narcotism is induced very slowly, the animal reeling for a long time, and seeming to be paralysed, without being altogether free from pain. Con- vulsions, too, and vomiting, are apt to come on, and the animals recover gradually, but surely. I experimented on three animals, in the presence of Dr. Snow, in which these results followed. One of the animals vomited; and in all the cases, the ansesthesia, though sufficiently marked, was not so perfect as in some other instances. By continuing the exhibition of the narcotic, however, we succeeded in destroy- ing a rabbit. The symptoms which the very diluted fumes of the fungus produce in animals, are somewhat like the effects of tobacco in persons who are not accustomed to smoke, with the addition of more decided narcotism and insensibi- lity. It is worthy of remark, that an animal can be made to tolerate this narcotic by inhaling it frequentty. I have a dog on which I have experimented from the first. Ori- ginally, the creature would come under the influence of the narcotic in six minutes; she will now inhale it, in liberal proportions, for an hour, at the end of which time she is in- toxicated, and vomits if she has had a meal previously; but she is quite conscious, answers to her name, and tries to walk; the sensibility of the body being absent altoge- ther, and the limbs occasionally convulsed. It requires a space of half-an-hour for her to recover from this con- dition. I have noticed that young animals, whose respi- rations are quick, although rapidly narcotized by a large dose of the substance, resist the action of a diluted dose very obstinately. I have kept young kittens for more than an hour in the vapour, and, under its influence, rolling about in the most drunken manner, but not absolutely insensible ; when, however, complete narcotism does set in, it continues \for a long period,