Saponinum

Anthoriiy. 20, Dr. Kef)per, Berlin Khu. Woch., Nos. 32, 33, 34, 1878 (Med. Record, vol. xv, 1879, p. 153).

In each experiment he injected 0.1 gram of Saponin into the inner side of his left thigh. The immediate local effect was development of a cutaneou's inflammation resembling erysipelas, but much more painful. This inflammation increased in violence for twenty-four hours, remained stationary for the same length of time, and then diminished rapidly. The general symptoms produced by this violent local irritation were the same as would be excited by any very painful injection. The specific local effects of the Saponin, anaesthesia of the point of injection to other irritants, set in about fifteen minutes after the injection, and persisted less than fifteen minutes. The area of the anaesthesia was identical with that of the paleness caused by the injected solution, i. e., it extended as far as the Saponin solution spread in the subcutaneous tissue, and bathed directly the ends of the nerves. Of the specific general effects of the drug the most important was undoubtedly its action on the temperature. This rose steadily for three hours, and then fell gradually to the normal point, which it reached within twenty-four hours. For the next two days there was some fever, but on the fifth day the temperature was far below the normal point, reaching the collapse point of 93°. The pulse also was somewhat elevated the first three days, and fell on the fifth day to 65 per minute. The rise in the temperature during the first three days was evidently due to the violent local inflammation, and it would have been much more excessive had it not been for the specific depressing action of the drug on the pulse and temperature; this manifested itself in its full power on the fifth day, after the local inflammation had subsided. Other general effects of the drug were, marked bodily and mental depression, somnolence, and salivation. The pain, exophthalmus, and strabismus of the left eye, and the greater depression of the temperature on the left side (2|'^ on the fifth day), must be ascribed to direct alteration of the nerve-centres, while the pain in the knee and hip, and the swelling of the glands in the left groin, were evidently due to direct transmission of inflammation,'"