A contribution to comparative pathology : being a further inquiry into the reasons why the horse rarely vomits / by Joseph Sampson Gamgee.
- Sampson Gamgee
- Date:
- 1857
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A contribution to comparative pathology : being a further inquiry into the reasons why the horse rarely vomits / by Joseph Sampson Gamgee. 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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![y FUUTHEll INQUIRY INTO 'ilBE 'ftlCASONS of the experimenis w'ith hellebore, the basis of an inquirj'j the results of which I shall narrate as succinctly as is con- sistent with a clear statement of fact. Ercolani and Vella invited Dr. Waller to perform on the horse, before the Piedmontese Biological Society, the experiments which he had successfully performed at Bonn, on dogs and frogs, of inducing vomiting by reflex move- ments, excited by galvanizing the superior extremity of a divided vagus nerve. The result was not considered con- clusive, and a new and modified trial was about to be made,- when the receipt of my communication from Vienna led to the adoption of a new plan of experiment, with the combined injection of hellebore, and galvanization of the distal end of the cut /)fiff vagum. Unfortunately^ my learned friends at Turin proceeded to the new inquiry w'ith an extreme, and in my opinion unwarranted, appreciation of Viborg's and Hering's experiments, which they held to px'ove that the horse is really susceptible to emesis without vomiting taking place, where- fore the obstacles to the performance of that act must be essentially mechanical. 1 shall subsequently develop the reasons why I consider these conclusions based on insufficient evidence. All the phenomena which I had witnessed after the helle- bore injection, were manifested when the experiment was repeated by Ercolani and Vella, who additionally report having observed violent contractions of the abdominal muscles, synchronous with spasms of the pharynx and con- vulsive opening of the mouth. In another experiment, the injection of three drachms of tincture of hellebore did not suffice to produce the violent abdominal action, but this be- came manifest on galvanizing the distal extremity of a pre- viously divided vagus nerve. Comparing these symptoms with those reported to have been present in the rare cases in which horses have vomited, the experimenters concluded that the emetic action of the Feratnm album on the horse's nervous system was proved beyond doubt. In pursuance ot their inquiry those gentlemen injected the tincture of the white hellebore in the jugular vein of a dog, producing extremely violent vomiting; and they ])ei'formed a similar experiment on the rabbit (an animal which, like the horse, is held note to vomit), and observed violent diaphragmatic and abdominal movements, and opening of the mouth as if to vomit, but not doing so; facts which were admitted as proof that in animals habituated to vomit, such as the dog, injection of white hellabore into the veins produces the reverted evacuation of the stomach's contents through the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2228350x_0010.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
