INTERESTING EXPERIMENT WITH STRYCHNIA.

An interesting experiment, illustrative of the poisonous effects of strychnia, was recently made by Professor Agassiz, at Cambridge. The subject was a large black bear, about eighteen months old. The animal was taken when young, and had been kept in captivity for a considerable period. Professor Agassiz being desirous of killing it for the purpose of dissection, about three grains of strychnia were administered. The poison, though extremely bitter was readily swallowed. At the expiration of ten minutes, no effect having been produced, a second dose of about the same quantity was also inclosed in a biscuit and offered. The cunning animal broke open and swallowed the biscuit, but rejected the poison. The first portion, however, had proved efficacious, and in exactly fifteen minutes from the time when first administered, the animal was seized with terrible convulsions, and soon died.

The whole time which elapsed between the taking of the poison and the death of the animal, did not exceed twenty-five minutes. In order to alleviate its sufferings and hasten death, a quantity of hydrocyanic acid was poured upon the nose and mouth of the bear. It did not, however, produce any sensible effect, and was not apparently taken into the system, as the animal at the time was nearly dead. But the subsequent effects of the poison were most remarkable. Although the bear, at the time of death, was in perfect health and strength, twenty-four hours had not elapsed before the body was in an advanced stage of decomposition. Indeed the appearances indicated that the animal had been dead for nearly two months. The interior of the body, when opened about twenty hours after death, still retained its warmth in a considerable degree, while an offensive gas issued from every pore. The blood had not coagulated, the spinal marrow and nerves were in a semi-fluid state, and the flesh had assumed a leaden-gray color. The hair of the hide readily came out on being slightly pulled. No smell of the hydrocyanic acid could be perceived.

The origin of this singular and speedy decomposition is not fully known, though it is supposed to be due to the agency of the hydrocyanic acid. A chemical examination of the muscle, brain, nerves, liver and kidneys is now going on at the Cambridge laboratory, under the direction of Professor Horsford. One singular fact connected with the spontaneous decomposition of these parts is, that they all yielded or disengaged hydrosulphuric acid gas, with the exception of the liver, which did not.—Annual of Scientific Discovery.

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