IV. The pharmacology of aconitine, diacetyl-aconitine, benzaconine, and aconine, considered in relation to their chemical constitution

Abstract

Since the time of Stork, few problems in Pharmacology have received more attention than the action of aconite ( Aconitum napellus ), or its alkaloid, but whether extracts of the whole plant have been employed, as by the earlier observers, or alkaloidal substances, as by the later, the drug and its components do not, as yet, occupy a well-defined position from either the pharmacological or therapeutical aspect. Recorded observations have frequently been so discrepant and contradictory with regard to one another, that even the fundamental points of action of aconite and aconitine still remain in a condition of unsettlement and dispute. It may safely be stated that with regard to no other object of such extensive research has there been obtained so scanty a harvest of facts. As illustrative of these divergences, the following may be quoted :—