The effects of drugs and other agencies upon the respiratory movements / by Horatio C. Wood ; assisted by David Cerna.

  • Wood, Horatio Curtis, 1841-1920.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The effects of drugs and other agencies upon the respiratory movements / by Horatio C. Wood ; assisted by David Cerna. 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.

    9/38 page 373
    Sometime since, Dr Lauder Brunton called attention to the great importance of maintaining the bodily temperature in narcotic poisoning, and showed that in the dog the fatal effects of otherwise lethal doses of narcotics might be set aside by placing the animal in heated chambers. Our experiments naturally suggest that as in narcotic poisoning the animal usually dies of respiratory paralysis, the antagonistic effect of the heat is due to its stimulating respiratory centres. In order to test this explanation, we have made two experiments, one with morphine and one with chloral, which we append. Experiment IY. Period Rect. temp. Movement of air cu. ft. Resp. rate C. i 38-5 0-16 42 2 3 372 0-15 4 39-3 0-38 94 5 39-5 0-37 100 Remarks Weight 7 ’7 kilos. Given 12 grs. morphine into jugular in divided dose. Complete narcotism ; paraplegia. Dog now put in hot box, and kept there, getting abundant air for respiration. Dog returned to box. Experiment Y. 1 38 0-16 21 2 37o 0-13 18 3 0-12 22 4 • o 0-27 100 6 40 0-67 90 Weight 5-5 kilos. Given 3 grs. chloral. Dog given 5 more grs. chloral. Complete unconsciousness. 3 grs. more chloral given. Dog was now put into hot box. Rectal temperature, through a misunder- standing, not taken. Dog taken out; afterwards replaced. Dog taken out of box and allowed to stay out. An examination of the records just given will show the enormous effect of heat upon the respiration in narcotism. The first dog was completely narcotized (its spinal cord indeed being almost completely paralyzed) by 12 grains of morphia. During the narcotism the rectal temperature had fallen 103 C. below the norm. When by means of external heat the rectal, temperature was raised about one degree above the norm, the respiratory rate was more than doubled, and the movement of air in the chest increased from 0T5 cubic foot per minute, to 038 cubic foot.
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