On the physiological action of ulexin / by J. Rose Bradford.

  • Bradford, John Rose, Sir, 1863-1935.
Date:
[1887?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the physiological action of ulexin / by J. Rose Bradford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    produce a slight and transient paralysis of voluntary movement; and these doses also produce quivering movements of the voluntary muscles. With larger doses the respirations will be arrested some time before voluntary movement is paralyzed. Pinet (loc. cit.) apparently concluded that in the frog the action of Ulexin was mainly on the nervous system, and concludes that the twitchings observed with small doses are of central origin. Certain experiments mentioned below on the mammal, would seem to throw some doubt upon this. Finally, besides the action of the drug on the motor nerves, it is seen that it paralyzes the vagal terminations, and that the activity of the respiratory centre is also abolished, but the latter action is best studied on the mammal. 2. Action of Ulexin Hydrobromate on the Mammal. Observations were made in the cat and dog on the blood pressure, the respiration, and the kidney, and in all cases these results have been recorded. The respirations were recorded by a T piece in the trachea, the kidney was investigated by means of Roy’s oncometer, the urine being recorded at the same time, and for the blood pressure a mercurial manometer was used. In the kidney experiments, the blood pressure was observed simultaneously. Solutions of the drug were injected into the external jugular vein, the animal being under chloroform only, but in the experiments on the kidney, the animal was also curarized and artificial respiration kept up. Curare was really unnecessary, as the Ulexin injected was sufficient to completely paralyze the animal, but owing to these kidney experiments having been made before the others this fact was not then known. In the mammal Ulexin is a powerful respiratory poison, the intra- venous injection of 3 mgrms. in a chloroformed cat, weighing 5 lbs., killing the animal with convulsions, in from two to three minutes ; but if artificial respiration be kept up, the animal can be kept alive just as with curare. In a cat under chloroform, where the respiratory move- ments were being recorded, 5 mgrm. of Ulexin had the following effect. Before the injection, the respirations were at the rate of 26 per minute. Immediately after the intravenous injection of the drug, the respiratory acts were quickened to 40 in the minute, and were enormously increased in depth; much more so in fact than in rate, the amplitude of the respiratory curve being three or four times as great as normal. A further dose of l-5 mgrms. was then injected, and this absolutely arrested the respiration, causing first however an attack of convulsions.