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case cannot be said to be accurately known. There is no doubt, however, that S. hispidus and S. kombe are those most frequently employed. Both S. hispidus and S. kombe have hairy seeds with a slender thread-like appendage, terminating in a feathery tuft of long silken hairs, the seeds of the former being coated with See also:

SHORT, FRANCIS JOB (1857– )

short appressed See also:

brown hairs, and those of the latter with See also:

white hairs; but in the species used at Delagoa See also:

Bay and called "umtsuli" the thread-like appendage of the See also:

SEED (from the root seen in Lat. serere, to sow)

seed is absent. The natives See also:

pound the seeds into an oily See also:

mass, which assumes a red See also:

COLOUR (Lat. color, connected with celare, to hide, the root meaning, therefore, being that of a covering)

colour, portions of this mass being smeared on the arrow immediately behind the barb. Under the name of strophanti semina, the dried ripe seeds of Strophanthus kombe, freed from awns, are See also:

OFFICIAL (Late Lat. QJicialis, for class. Lat. apparitor, from officium, office, duty)

official in the See also:

BRITISH

British and many other pharmacopeias. The seeds must be mature. They are about in. long, in. broad, greenish fawn, covered with flattened silky hairs, and See also:

OVAL (Lat. ovum, egg)

oval-See also:

ACUMINATE (from Lat. acumen, point)

acuminate in shape. They are almost odourless, but have an intensely See also:

BITTER, KARL THEODORE FRANCIS (1867– )

bitter See also:

TASTE (from Lat. taxare, to touch sharply; tangere, to touch)

taste.

The See also:

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief constituent is a white microcrystalline See also:

GLUCOSIDE

glucoside, known as strophanthin, freely soluble in See also:

WATER

water and See also:

ALCOHOL

alcohol, but not in See also:

CHLOROFORM (trichlor-methane), CHC13

chloroform or See also:

ETHER, (C2H5)2O

ether, and melting at about 173° C. It constitutes about 5o% of the mature cotyledons of the seed, the proportion rising as maturity is reached. It is very similar to, but not identical with, onabain. It is split up by acids into strophanthidin and a methyl-ether of a See also:

PECULIAR

peculiar See also:

SUGAR

sugar. The seeds also contain an active principle, inein, a See also:

BODY

body known as kombic See also:

ACID (from the Lat. root ac-, sharp; acere, to be sour)

acid, See also:

FAT (O.E. fdett; the word is common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dutch vet, Ger. Fett, &c., and may be ultimately related to Greek Irian, and =apos, and Sanskrit pivan)

fat, See also:

RESIN (through O.Fr. resine, modern reline, from Lat. resina, prcbably Latinized from Greek Pirivrt, resin)

resin and See also:

STARCH

starch. The resin is contained in the husk, and occurs in the alcoholic See also:

TINCTURE (Fr. teinture, Lat. tinctura, tingere, to dye, stain)

tincture of strophanthus, its presence tending to cause See also:

DIGESTIVE

digestive disturbance and See also:

DIARRHOEA (from Gr. &Q, through, pfw, flow)

diarrhoea. When the seeds are treated with sulphuric acid and See also:

HEAT (0. E. haktu, which like " hot," Old Eng. hat, is from the Teutonic type haita, hit, to be hot; cf. Ger. hitze, heiss; Dutch, hitte, heet, &c.)

heat is applied, a See also:

VIOLET

violet-coloration is produced. A See also:

section of the seed yields a See also:

green colour with See also:

COLD (in O. Eng. cald and ceald, a word coming ultimately from a root cognate with the Lat. gelu, gelidus, and common in the Teutonic languages, which usually have two distinct forms for the substantive and the adjective, cf. Ger. Kolte, kalt, Dutch koude

cold sulphuric acid. The British Pharmacopeia contains two preparations of this important and valuable See also:

drug, a dry See also:

EXTRACT (from Lat. extrahere, to draw out)

extract and a tincture. The former is hardly ever prescribed. The official tincture is much inferior to that originally recommended by See also:

Sir See also:

Thomas See also:

Fraser, who introduced the drug into medical practice, in being much too weak, and in being prepared with alcohol instead of ether, which differs from alcohol in not dissolving the resin contained in the husks. It is therefore advisable to order the tincture of the British Pharmacopeia of 1885, or to prescribe the current tincture in See also:

double the official dose and combined with cardamoms, See also:

GINGER (Fr. gingembre, Ger. Ingwer)

ginger or See also:

CAPSICUM

capsicum, in order to counteract the irritant properties of the resin which it contains.

Strophanthin itself may be injected hypodermically in doses of sia to 2,1a See also:

GRAIN (derived through the French from Lat. granum, seed, from an Aryan root meaning " to wear down," which also appears in the common Teutonic word " corn ")

grain. Unfortunately the injections usually cause some temporary See also:

LOCAL

local irritation. This method of exhibiting strophanthus is the only one of any avail when a result is wanted at once or even within several See also:

HOURS, CANONICAL

hours. Precisely the same observation applies to See also:

DIGITALIS

digitalis, the other See also:

GREAT

great cardiac tonic. See also:

PHARMACOLOGY

Pharmacology.—The drug has no See also:

EXTERNAL

external actions. Taken internally it tends, alter the repetition of large doses, to produce some gastric irritation. This is unquestionably less, however, than that produced by digitalis, and is probably due not at all to the active principle but entirely to the resin contained in the seed-husk. As ordinarily administered, the drug acts on the See also:

heart before influencing any other See also:

ORGAN

organ or See also:

TISSUE (Fr. tissu, tissue, participle of tisser, Lat. texere, to weave)

tissue. Often indeed no other See also:

ACTION

action can be observed. This is readily explained by the fact that the drug is carried by the coronary See also:

ARTERIES (Gr. ap-rnpia, probably from a"spew, to raise, but popularly connected by the ancients with ai7P, air)

arteries to the cardiac muscle before it reaches any other See also:

PART

part of the systemic circulation. It is almost certain that strophanthus acts directly on no other cardiac structure than the muscle-fibre. No action can certainly be demonstrated either upon the terminals of the vagus nerves nor upon the See also:

INTRA

intra-cardiac See also:

NERVOUS

nervous ganglia.

The See also:

MUSCULAR

muscular force is increased in a very marked degree. A secondary consequence of this is that the diastole is prolonged, and the See also:

PULSE

pulse thus rendered: less frequent. If the heart is beating irregularly the drug tends to make it more See also:

REGULAR

regular. The action is similar to that of digitalis—and fifty years ago both these drugs would thus have been regarded, as indeed digitalis was, as cardiac sedatives. As the cardiac muscle receives its See also:

BLOOD

blood See also:

SUPPLY (through Fr. from Lat. supplere, to fill up)

supply only during diastole, it follows that strophanthus, while increasing the force of each See also:

BEAT (a word common in various forms to the Teutonic languages; it is connected with the similar Romanic words derived from the Late Lat. battere)

beat, yet lengthens the See also:

period during which the muscle rests and is fed—thus being, in a paradoxical sense, a sedative as well as a stimulant. In fatal cases of strophanthus poisoning See also:

DEATH

death is brought about by the See also:

ARREST (Fr. arrester, arreeter, to stop or stay)

arrest of the heart in systole, i.e. in a See also:

state of tetanic spasm from over-stimulation. This of course is a striking exception to the natural See also:

RULE

rule that death finds the heart in a state of relaxation and inability to See also:

contract. Strophanthus markedly raises the blood-pressure, but this action is proportional to and almost entirely due to the increased force of the heart; not, as in the case of digitalis, to constriction of the arterioles. Its action on the heart causes strophanthus to exert a powerful diuretic action, especially in cases of See also:

DROPSY (contracted from the old word hydropisy, derived from the Gr. 154w¢; i Swp, water, and appearance)

dropsy of cardiac origin. It is a less powerful diuretic than digitalis as a rule. The drug has no action on the nervous See also:

SYSTEM

system, but in toxic doses it powerfully affects the voluntary striped muscles. This action may be correlated with that exerted upon the cardiac muscle, which is striped, though not voluntary, and contrasted with its want of action upon the muscular fibre of the arteries, which is involuntary and non-striped.

The drug, like onabain, has a slight anaesthetic action when locally applied to the eyeball, and also causes contraction of the See also:

PUPIL (Lat. pupillus, orphan, minor, dim. of pupus, boy, allied to puer, from root pm- or peu-, to beget, cf. "pupa," Lat. for " doll," the name given to the stage intervening between the larval and imaginal stages in certain insects)

pupil. Strophanthin is one of the most active and lethal of all known substances. One-hundredth of a grain will kill a mammal weighing four pounds, and one-third of a grain will kill a See also:

man of See also:

AVERAGE

average See also:

WEIGHT

weight. Serum containing one part of strophanthin in ten millions will arrest the See also:

FROG

frog's heart in systole. Strophanthus is used therapeutically only as a cardiac stimulant. When given by the mouth it acts somewhat more rapidly than digitalis, being more soluble; but it is of course far less speedy in action than ether, See also:

AMMONIA (NH3)

ammonia or such a pseudo-stimulant as See also:

ETHYL

ethyl alcohol. In mitral disease of the heart especially strophanthus is an invaluable drug. It frequently succeeds when digitalis has failed; occasionally it fails where digitalis succeeds. It has the great See also:

ADVANTAGE

advantage over digitalis of being non-cumulative, and can be ad-ministered continually for many See also:

WEEKS, EDWIN LORD (1849-1903)

weeks or even months at a See also:

time. It is never to be given in acute See also:

Bright's disease, but is frequently of use in chronic Bright's disease, where digitalis, owing to its See also:

INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)

influence on the already over-contracted arterioles, is absolutely contra-indicated.

End of Article: STROPHANTHUS

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STRONTIUM [Symbol Sr, atomic weight 87.62 (0=16)]

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