2 d. Frequency of pulse is increased and fulness diminished.
2 e. Hyoscyamine renders movements of heart regular; daturine often produces intermittence and arrest of action. When applied directly, both alkaloids slow, and ultimately arrest, the beats.
f. Both always accelerate respiration.
g. Neither has any direct action on the nervous system of animal life. Sensation and motor power are not modified by them. In toxic doses they blunt cutaneous sensibility.
h. In small doses they accelerate the movements of the intestines; in large doses they paralyse them.
i. The general phenomena observed when these alkaloids are given are due to modification of the circulation, and disappear rapidly. The alkaloids are soon eliminated, especially by the urine, in which they may be found.
j. The dilation of pupil which is prodded is due to stimulation of the sympathetic; the third pair of nerves is not concerned in its production.
k. Small doses generally give rise to slight increase of temperature; large doses diminish the central temperature. (LAURENT op. cit.)
3. a. The smallest active doses of H. when administered to animals, cause numerical depression of the pulse and increased arterial tension, reduce the temperature, dilate the pupil, and have little effect on the respiration.
3 b. Small doses cause reduction of pulse, with increase of arterial pressure, followed by quickening, which after a greater or less persistence suddenly subsides and sinks towards the normal point. During the action of the drug there is restlessness, followed by motor paralysis, diminution of respiration, and reduction of temperature about 4o. “The great decline in temperature is most noticeable, associated as it is with such a marked increase of cardiac activity. The relation between the temperature and the respirations is so precise as to suggest an explanation of this anomaly. The beginning of this precipitate decline in temperature exactly corresponds with that of the slackening of respiration, and when the respirations are at their lowest the temperature reaches its minimum”(in a cat 12.4 below the starting-point). In all case there is dilatation of pupil and dryness of mouth and throat.
3 c. Large dose elevate the pulse without previous depression, and this quickening is maintained for 6 or 8 hours. Great fall of temperature, diminution of respiration, loss of motor power, delirious excitement, and sometimes prolonged but interrupted sleep, succeed, and are in their turn followed by sudden reduction of the pulse towards th initial point, and sometimes below it. This fall precedes complete recovery from the operation of the drug.
3 d. Lethal doses cause death either by syncope during extreme vascular excitement, or by coma following upon non- elimination of the drug by the urine, and imperfect aeration of the blood through impairment of respiration.[*”There are two definite modes of death from large doses of H. In the case of animals dying suddenly while the pulse is excessively high, and the muscular power sufficient to admit of a considerable amount of struggling, there is invariably a large secretion of urine, and little narcotic action. In such cases death results from syncope. But when muscular activity is not excited by external irritation, and when there is no secretion of urine, head symptoms develop with marked rapidity and intensity; sleep, at first interrupted by spontaneous startings and short periods of delirious excitement passes into absolute coma, and death ensues after a temporary period of renewed cardiac excitement. In the first class of cases the brain is found to be somewhat anaemic and little or no blood escapes on its removal. The bladder is generally full and distended, and the heart contains some fluid blood on both sides. In the second, the cavity of the skull is full of fluid blood, large quantities, escaping from the sinuses. The medulla and cerebellum are surrounded by venous fluid, and the surface of the brain is marked by large vessels, though the cerebral substance is pale and anaemic. The corpora striata appear in such instances to contain relatively more blood than any other part of the brain. The heart and lungs are full of fluid blood, and the latter also oedematous. The kidneys are always congested.”*].
3 e. The drug generally produces increased urinary and diminished alvine secretion. 3 f. To rabbits, pigeons, and others of the lower animals, hours is almost, if not altogether, as active poison as to man; but in birds no dilatation of pupil is produced by it, and no dryness of mouth and throat
3 g. Long-continued administration of the drug causes loss of weight, quickening of pulse with increase of arterial pressure, quickening also of respiration and increase of temperature. Subsequently there is restoration of weight but persistence of heightened pulsation, respiration, and temperature. Individual doses administered to an animal constitutionally affected by hyoscyamine cause, not reduction, but elevation of animal heat.
3 h. The intrathoracic changes and the decline of temperature are physiologically produced by stimulation of the sympathetic system and depression of the cardiac and pulmonary distribution of the pneumogastrics. The elevation of temperature seen in persistent administration of the drug is probably due to a tolerance of the substance by the pneumogastrics while the sympathetic still remains affected by it.
3 i. The pupil is dilated by H. through simultaneous stimulation of the sympathetic and depression of the third pair, as distributed to the iris.
3 j. Local application causes dilation of pupil, commencing in 3-4 morning, increasing for 15 m. persistent for abut 3 1/2 hours, gradually passing off and returning to normal state in 3 days. After internal use of moderate doses pupil begins to dilate in 2-3 m. and reaches its widest diameter in 20 morning. The maximum dilatation persists more than 24 hours, and the pupil does not return to it normal size for 6 days.
3 k. In order to determine the vascular changes in the cerebrum, I exposed under chloroform one hemisphere of a rabbit, and observed the condition of the intracranial circulation. Time was allowed for the production of changes incidental to the exposure to atmospheric irritation and the removal of vascular support. a sufficient dose of hours was then given, and almost immediately there was a marked contraction of the vessels under observation. As the pulse quickened there was slight dilatation, but subsequently little or no change occurred till shortly before death, which took place in about an hour. Previous to death, the number of visible branches of the main trunk which had been selected was reduced from 13 to 10, and after death the other side of the brain was found pale and anaemic. (LAWSON, op. cit.).
Hughes was a great writer and a scholar. He actively cooperated with Dr. T.F. Allen to compile his 'Encyclopedia' and rendered immeasurable aid to Dr. Dudgeon in translating Hahnemann's 'Materia Medica Pura' into English. In 1889 he was appointed an Editor of the 'British Homoeopathic Journal' and continued in that capacity until his demise. In 1876, Dr. Hughes was appointed as the Permanent Secretary of the Organization of the International Congress of Homoeopathy Physicians in Philadelphia. He also presided over the International Congress in London.