The development of inhalation anaesthesia : with special reference to the years 1846-1900... / [Barbara M. Duncum].
- Duncum, Barbara M.
- Date:
- 1947
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The development of inhalation anaesthesia : with special reference to the years 1846-1900... / [Barbara M. Duncum]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
412/664 page 392
![diminished or may not even appear when the two drugs are combined is so certain that I can subcutaneously inject a solution containing i to 2 milligrams of atropine sulphate and 3 to 4 centigrams of morphine sulphate without producing a marked degree of gastric, cardiac or cerebral symptoms.'1 The three Goulstonian Lectures for the year 1868 were delivered at the Royal College of Physicians in London by John Harley, Assistant Physician at King's College Hospital. His subject was ' The physiological actions and therapeutical uses of conium, belladonna and hyoscyamus alone and in com- bination with opium '. His second lecture dealt specifically with ' The physiological action and therapeutical uses of belladonna ' : ' Observations were made upon man, the dog and the horse. The effects following the subcutaneous injection of increasing doses of the sulphate of atropia in man were first considered. The fiftieth of a grain of this salt is usually sufficient to produce the full effects of the plant ; and, briefly summed up, the following are the effects of a full medicinal dose : an acceleration of the pulse from twenty to seventy beats, with a slight increase in its volume, and a considerable increase in the force of the cardiac and arterial contractions ; a general diffusion of warmth throughout the cutaneous surface ; a slight throbbing or heaving sensation in the carotids ; a slight feeling of pressure under the parietal bones ; giddiness, heaviness, and drowsiness, or actual somnolency, accompanied by a tendency to quiet dreamy delirium and nervous startings ; complete dryness of the tongue, roof of the mouth and soft palate [2], extending more or less down the pharynx and larynx, rendering the voice husky, and often inducing dry cough and difficulty of deglutination ; a parched condition of the lips ; occasional dryness of the Schneiderian and conjunctival mucous membranes ; and increasing dilatation of the pupils. • ' If', said Harley, ' we take the simplest view of the action of belladonna, it is that of direct and powerful stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system. . . . During the operation of medicinal doses of belladonna the heart contracts with increased vigour, the arteries increase in tone and volume, and the capillary system fully participates in the general excitation of the circula- tion. ... In all conditions and diseases, therefore, in which there is a depression of the sympathetic nervous influence, such as syncope from asthenia, or shock ; in the collapse of cholera ; 1 C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, 1883, 5, 289. 2 Alex. Fleming in 1862 seems to have been the first to record of atropine that ' painted on the mucous membrane of the mouth and throat, it dries the part, and— chiefly as secondary effects—impairs both feeling and movement '. [Edinb. med. J., 1862-3, N.S. 8, 777.)](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20457200_0416.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
