REPORT BY BDE-SURGN.-LIEUT.-COL. D. D. CUNNINGHAM, F.R.S., C.I.E.
195
The experiment was begun on the 31st October 1893 and continued until the 6th Jan-
uary 1894, and during this period doses were administered on 62 days. The original small
doses were employed until the 12th November when the amount was somewhat increased.
On the 25th November the dose was raised to 0.52 grain, on the 28th December to 2 grains
and on the 30th December to 3 grains.
No conspicuous effects manifested themselves during the entire course of the experiment.
At the outset the animals appeared for a time to be somewhat quieter than they had been
previous to the administration of the drug, but, if this were in any way a consequence of the
treatment, it was one of very transitory nature as it soon wore off, and during the whole of
the latter part of the course of the experiment they appeared to be entirely unaffected in any
way, and were quite lively. Their appetite for food underwent no appreciable alteration
throughout.
The rapid and considerable increases in the amount of doses of the drug which were
latterly made unfortunately had the effect of bringing the experiment to an abrupt and
untimely termination, for after they had for a few days partaken of doses of 3 grains both ani-
mals simultaneously absolutely declined to touch the milk containing the drug, and, in spite of
repeatedly renewed attempts to induce them to resume the habit, they have persistently refused
to do so up to the present time. They were therefore only under treatment from the 31st
October until the 6th of January, which was the last day on which they could be induced to
partake of the milk, and the only noteworthy phenomenon which presented itself during the
entire course of the experiment was the abruptness with which an extreme distaste for the
drug set in. This is the more remarkable when compared with the phenomena which presented
themselves in connection with continued treatment by inhalations of ganja. In the case of
the ingestion of charas continued treatment was accompanied with the development of a dis-
taste for the treatment, whilst in the case of ganja-inhalation it led to the acquisition of an
abnormal craving for it.
EXPERIMENT
III.
On the effects of habitual inhalations of the smoke of the seeds and leaves of dhatura.
The subject of experiment, as in the case of that on the effects of the inhalation of the
smoke of ganja, was a fair-sized specimen of Macacus rhesus. The treatment was initiated
on the 1st June and continued until the 11th July, so that the experiment lasted for a period
of about six weeks. In its conduct the same inhalation-apparatus was employed as in the first
experiment. At the outset the seeds of dhatura were made use of as the source of smoke,
but as the latter appeared to be undesirably potent, leaves were presently substituted for
them and were persistently employed throughout the rest of the experiment.
The symptoms attending the treatment were not invariably quite uniform in character.
On some occasions indications of a certain amount of cerebral excitement were present for
some time, but as a rule drowsiness and gradually increasiug intoxication manifested themselves
from the outset, either alone or associated with symptoms of irritation of the respiratory
apparatus as indicated by coughing.
The animal was killed by means of prolonged administration of chloroform on the morn-
ing of the 14th July and a post-mortem examination conducted at once with the following
results:
The lungs were not adherent to the thoracic walls,but were both deeply congested almost
everywhere, and specially towards their apices in which numerous tubercular nodules and
small cavities were present. Such phenomena are, of course, very frequent in the lungs of
monkeys in confinement, but it remains possible that the general pulmonary congestion may
have been partially due to irritation incident on the inhalation of the smoke. The visceral
pericardium was almost devoid of fat and was somewhat thickened and opaque, especially
over the region of the right auricle. The omentum and mesentery were also very free from
fat. The spleen appeared to be rather anæmic and was somewhat fibroid in texture. The
liver, pancreas, stomach, large and small intestines, and kidneys presented no abnormal appear-
ances.
On opening the cranium the dura-mater was found to be somewhat thickened and, es-
pecially in the neighbourhood of the superior longitudinal sinus, very conspicuously congested.
In this region, too, the membrane in the occipital region was fixed to the cranial walls by soft,
very vascular adhesions. The pia-mater was thickened and so highly injected throughout
that the cerebral surface had a generally diffused pink tint. The cerebral substance was every-
where abnormally soft and so friable as to render any immediate removal of the membranes
impossible without the occurrence of much destruction of the nervous tissue. Like the sur-
face, although in minor degree, it was of a pinkish tinge owing to abnormal accumulation of
blood. Conditions of this kind appeared to be universally diffused throughout the whole of
the cerebral centres, the texture of the hemispheres, of the cerebellum and of the basal ganglia
being alike soft, and the evidences of abnormal congestion universally distributed. In spite
of this, however, the spinal cord and its membranes were to all appearance perfectly
healthy.