BULBOCAPNINE

Abstract

The typical picture of catalepsy as produced by moderate doses of bulbocapnine is now widely known; for the present it is sufficient to recall that it is chiefly characterized by immobility, loss of motor initiative, resistance to passive movement, maintenance of the body in attitudes which would ordinarily be obnoxious or inconvenient and submission to the assumption of passively induced abnormal positions of the limbs. Larger doses, on the other hand, cause hyperkinesia and even epileptiform seizures. We have been impressed by the similarity between the symptoms reported to be due to bulbocapnine and certain cataleptic phenomena observed in this laboratory as the result of the production of lesions in the upper part of the midbrain in cats (Ranson and Ingram¹). This catalepsy, which was associated with somnolence, was characterized chiefly by a markedly plastic type of muscle tonus. It was possible to mold these cats in odd postures