If larger doses be given, there will be superacided a distressing fluttering sen sation in the cardiac region, slight de lirium; exquisite sensibility of hearing, and frequent illusions of this sense also; staggering, or complete inability to walk; insomnia, restlessness, and frequently great nervous agitation of mind and body. Nausea and headache are rare and exceptional consequences of the sub cutaneous use of atropine, but sometimes follow when given by the stomach in full closes.
Certain conditions modify the action of atropine. Children are more tolerant of the drug than adults, and in this respect resemble the lower animals; and while acceleration of the pulse, dilatation of the pupils, and dryness of the mouth are more readily induced in them, cere bra-spinal effects—giddiness, drowsiness, sensory illusions, and unsteadiness of gait—are only developed after a very large dose. Pregnancy appears to di minish the activity of atropine. The weak, and those of excitable tempera ment, are more readily and powerfully influenced than the strong. In renal disease, when the secretion of urine is diminished, or only moderate in quan the effects of atropine are readily induced and considerably prolonged; in persons with unusually active kidneys the action of the drug is less pronounced. While atropine in contact with caustic soda and potash is decomposed in the course of two or three hours, these bodies have no power of annulling or even diminishing the action of the alkaloid within the body. Acids have no influence on the action of atropine.
When administered by the stomach, the action of the drug is sometimes pro longed for two hours, and then develops suddenly.
Atropine passes undiminished and un changed through the blood, and the kid neys are active in its elimination from the minute that it enters the circulation until it is entirely removed from the body. After a full medicinal dose, be tween two or three hours are required for this purpose. The presence of atro pine in the renal secretion after taking the drug may be demonstrated by drop ping one or two drops of the urine within the eyelids of another person or animal at intervals of 10 to 20 minutes for two or three hours and noticing its dilating action on the pupils. The atropine may be separated from the urine by shaking the latter with a quantity of chloroform equal to a sixth of its bulk, and sepa rating the chloroform, or allowing it to evaporate spontaneously. The remain
ing stain is dissolved in a few drops of water, and a drop placed within the eye lids. The grain of atropine sulphate (sufficient to kill an infant) may thus be easily detected in the urine.
Atropine is a true diuretic and more powerful than any other that we possess, though in medicinal closes the diuretic effect is often masked by retention of urine. There is, after taking atropine, an increased elimination of all the solids (excepting generally the chlorine); the urea is always increased, often to a con siderable extent, and, most of all, the phosphates and sulphates, which are sometimes doubled.
Atropine diminishes the quantity of urine; it diminishes the total quantity and percentage quantity of urea; it increases relatively, and in many cases absolutely, the amount of nitrogen, other than that contained in urea. These effects cannot be attributed to the in fluence which the alkaloid exercises upon blood-pressure. How atropine acts to produce an elevation of the bodily tem perature has not been definitely deter mined. Thompson (Jour. of Phys., Dec., '93).
Sulphate of atropine was injected into the external jugular veins of rabbits first narcotized by ehloral-hydrate, and the urine flowing from a cannula in the bladder measured every five minutes, registering the blood-pressure at the same time. The dose of the atropine salt used ('A, grain) was large, but this quantity is well tolerated by rabbits; sometimes the dose was frequently re peated, and sometimes a still larger one was employed. In all but one the atro pine was injected after I had raised the secretion of urine by the intravenous injection of urea, caffeine-sulphonic acid, or theobromine-sodium salicylate. The results of the experiments show that a diminution of the flow of urine usually follows the intravenous injection of atropine, independently of the blood pressure, which is often raised. A series of experiments made with different strengths and quantities of urea solu tions seem to show that the kidneys are not injured even when large quantities of urea are injected. Albumin was only occasionally met with after the injection of urea, and then in mere traces, though small quantities of sugar were found when an increased urinary flow had been produced by large quantities of urea. Walti (Archie f. exper. Path. and Phan, B. 36, H. 5, 6, '95).