EFFECTS OF STRYCHNINE.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 174, 30 April 1872, Page 3

EFFECTS OF STRYCHNINE.

A man in Harrisburg recently attempted to commit suicide in Chicago by tak‘ lg a grain of strychnine. The skill of his physician having saved his life, he narrates his experience for the benefit of science. He says : —“ In the course of five minutes I began to feel slight cramps in the calves of my legs. The cramps increased in intensity, and extended to the feet and thighs, causing the most intense pain. I attempted to rise from the chair, but fell to the floor with convulsions in the lower extremities. Unsuccessful attempts were made to bathe my feet in hot water, each effort to raise me bringing on paroxysm, in the last one which I thought my jaws had become unhinged. I was now perfectly paralysed from the hips down, and suffering the most excruciating pains, which began to extend upward ; the muscles of the shouhleis and neck soon being considerably convulsed ; the forearms still being free from pain. I now prepared for the final struggle, which I knew must be near at hand, as I had become rigid from the neck down, save the forearm. The convulsions of tho muscles were becoming fearful, and the torture awful to endure. My hands were drawn into my sides, with the lingers drawn apart, and slightly bowed, and the jaws became rigid. I felt myself raised as if by some mighty power, and fixed immovably, with only my feet and bead touching anything, IJbecame unconscious of everything except my own agony, which was now beyond all description. I could feel my heart fluttering, and my brain beating and throbbing with an irregular motion, as though at every beat it would burst from its confinement. Every joint was locked, and every drop of blood seemed stagnated. I remember thinking it could not be long thus, when 1 must have lost consciousness. I remember nothing more until I felt a sensation of relief, as though the garments of death, which bad been hanging over me, were now being drawn back. These terrible cramps seemed to be descending towards my lower limbs. A feeding of relief stole over me, and I began to be again conscious. From that time I resumed consciousness, when I was entirely free from cramp, with the exception of a little in the tect. I had but one attack of cramp afterwards, whica was immediately relieved by a dose administered by my wife—the doctor having left for a short* time—and when he returned I felt that the poison was completely neutralised.” He is not likely to try strychnine again.