Volume 1

A text-book of human physiology : including histology and microscopical anatomy : with special reference to the requirements of practical medicine / by L. Landois ; translated from the seventh German edition, with additions, by William Stirling.

Date:: 1891

Credit: A text-book of human physiology : including histology and microscopical anatomy : with special reference to the requirements of practical medicine / by L. Landois ; translated from the seventh German edition, with additions, by William Stirling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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$The real cause of death iu animals poisoned with it is, tliat the internal respiration is arrested.] Poisoninff with Carbonic Oxide.—Carbonic oxide i.s formed during tlie inconpdete combustion of coal or coke, and passes into the air of the room, ]irovided there is not a free outlet lor the nroducts of combustion. It occurs to the extent of 12-28 per cent m ordinary gas, which ai-eU' owes its poisonous properties to the presence of CO. It the 0 be gradually di-splaced rom the blood by the respiration of air containing CO life cmi only bo maintamcd as long as suflicient 0 can be obtained from the blood to support tlie oxidations iiecessaiy for life. Death Lcurs before all the 0 is displaced from the blood. CO has no eflect when directly applied to muscle and nerve. When it is mixed with air, as in coal-gas poisoning, and inhaled, there is first stimulation and afterwards paralysis of the nervous system, as shown by the S7mptoms induced e.n., violent headache, great restlessness, excitement, increased activity of the heart and respiration, salivation, tremors, and spasms. Later, iinconscioiisness, weakness, and paralysis occur, laboured respiration, diminished heart-beat, and lastly, complete loss of sensibility, cessation of the respiration and heart-beat, and deatb. At hrst the temperature rises severd tenths of a degree, but it soon falls 1° or more. The pulse is also increased at first, but afterwards it becomes very small and frequent. In poisoning with pure CO theie is no dyspncea, but sometimes muscular spasms occur, the coma not being very marked, ihere is also temporary but pronounced paralysis of the limbs, followed by violent spasms, ^“sr death the heart and brain are congested with intensely florid blood. In poisoning with the vapour of charcoal, where CO and CO. both occur, there is a varying degree of coma ; pro- nounced dyspncea, muscular spasms which may last several minutes, gradual paralysis and asphyxia, moniliform contractions and subsequent dilatation of the blood-vessels, with cou“'estion of various organs, occur, accompanied by a fall of the blood-pressure ( AZeos), indmating initial stimulation and subsequent paralysis of the vaso-motor centre.^ explains the variations in tlie temperature and the occasional occurrence of siigar in the urine after poisonino- with CO. After death, the blood-vessels are found to be filled with fluid blood of an exquisitely bright cherry-red colour, while all the muscles and viscera and exposed parts of the body (such as the lips) have the same colour. The brain is soft and friable; there is catarrh of the respiratory organs and degeneration of the muscles, and great congestion and degeneration of the liver, kidneys, and spleen. The spots of lividity, post-mortem, are blight red. After recovery from poisoning with CO there may be paraplegia and (although inoie rarely) disturbances of the cerebral activity. 17. OTHER COMPOUNDS OF H.ffiMOGLOBIN—4. Nitric Oxide-Haemo- globin (NO-Hb) is formed when NO is brought into contact Avith Hh (L. Hermann). As NO has a great affinity for 0, red fumes of nitrogen peroxide (NO.) being formed when- ev'er the two gases meet, it is clear that, iu order to preqtare NO-Hb, the 0 must A}®!' be removed. Tins may be done by passing H through it, [or ammonia may be added to the blood, and a stream of NO passed through it; the ammonia combines with all the acid formed by the union of the NO with the 0 of 'the blood]. NO-Hb is a more staUc chemical compound than CO-Hb, Avhich, as we have seen, is again more stable than HbO.2. It has a bluish-violet tint, and also gives two absorption-bands in the spectrum similar to those of the other two com- pounds, but not so intense. These bands are not aboli.slied by the action of reducing agents. As NO-Hb cannot be formed in the body, it has no practical significance. The three compounds of Hb, Avith 0, CO, and NO, are crystalline, like reduced Hb ; they are isomorphous, and their solutions are not dichroic. AU three gases unite in ecpial A'olumes Avith Hh. If 0 he conducted through a concentrated solution of Hh devoid of gases, a crystalline mass of HhOg is thereby readily formed. 5. Cyanogen, CNH {Boppc-iieylcr), and acetylene, C2H4 {Bristow and Licbreich), form easily decomposable compounds with Hb. The former occurs in poisoning Avith hydrocyanic acid, and has a spectrum nearly identical with that of HbO., and, like HbO., it is reduced, but very slowly, by special reagents. [The existence of these compounds is, however, highlj' doubtful {Gamgec).'] 18. DECOMPOSITION OF HAEMOGLOBIN.—In solution and in the dry state Hh gradually becomes decomposed, Avherehy the iron-containing pigment hcematin (along Avith certain hye-products, formic, lactic, and butyric acids), is formed. IlEemoglohin, hoAvever, may he decomposed at once into—(1) Haematin, a body containing iron, and (2) a colourless proteid closely related to globulin; b}$