Atropine incapacitating dose study

It is baffling that the Japanese evidently carried out these treatments without the help of a true antidote. In our studies, doses of atropine no higher than 10 or 12 mg invariably produced delirium lasting 6-8 hours. By all accounts in the literature, larger doses produce commensurately longer periods of incapacitation. In 1945, for example, a health care worker apparently misread a container marked 1 gm as 1 mg and gave this enormous oral dose to a U.S. sailor. He was comatose for an unspecified period, and then delirious for most of the ensuing week, but he recovered fully. 

This group of compounds has both peripheral and central properties. It is known from ancient literature that atropine has psychotomimetic effects (extracts from Atropa belladona were used to induce hallucinations in wizards ). Central effects increase when the compounds are considered in the following rank atropine, scopolamine, benactyzine, Ditrane, and, finally, BZ and other esters of glycolic acid (Albanus, 1970). BZ was originally studied for the therapy of gastrointestinal diseases. But even in small doses it produces side effects, such as confusion and hallucinations. Therefore, BZ was withdrawn from commercial studies and turned over to the US Army as a possible candidate for incapacitating... 

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