What to do in cases of poisoning / by William Murrell.

  • William Murrell
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: What to do in cases of poisoning / by William Murrell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    66/240 (page 54)
    8. Artificial respiration to be maintained for two hours if necessary. ACONITIA—ACONITINE. Usually described as an alkaloid obtained from Aconitum Napellus or Monkshood, but much of our English Aconitia is in all pro- bability extracted from A. ferox, the Indian Aconite. Commercial aconitine is not a simple sub- stance but a mixture of several alkaloids, in- cluding aconitine, pseudaconitine, and picra- conitine. It is generally stated that English Aconitia is at least seventeen times as active as the German, the French being intermediate in power, but this classification into English, French, and German is unreliable and unscien- tific. It is said that Merck’s aconitine is thirty times as active as Friedlander’s whilst Petit’s is eight times as active as Merck’s. This is a matter of some importance, for the substitution of one kind for another might give rise to serious results. See British Medical Journal, April 15th, 1882. For symptoms and treatment, see Aconite.