Researches into the antagonism of medicines : being the report of the Edinburgh Committee of the British Medical Association / by John Hughes Bennett, chairman and reporter.

  • British Medical Association. Edinburgh Committee.
Date:
1875
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Researches into the antagonism of medicines : being the report of the Edinburgh Committee of the British Medical Association / by John Hughes Bennett, chairman and reporter. 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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    annoyed by other rabbits. The doses given to Nos. 173 and 174 were evidently not fatal ones, as the animals recovered from the same doses of Calabar bean extract, without the use of sulphate of atropia, given eight days after the first experiment. It will be observed, also, that No. 176 recovered in the second experiment from a minimum fatal dose of Calabar bean extract nine days after the first experiment. As it appears to be impossible to account for this fact, it is better to reject this experiment. Still we have three cases—Experiments 169, 170, and 17s—in which the animals recovered in the first instances from the effects of doses of extract of Calabar bean, as modified by the action of sulphate of atropia, which, given alone some days afterwards, killed in from seven to twelve minutes. In the case of No. 177, too large a dose of extract of Calabar bean was evidently given; but, even in this case, life was much prolonged, seeing that the animal survived forty minutes, when it probably would have died from the same dose of extract of Calabar bean, without the counteracting influence of sulphate of atropia, in from eight to twelve minutes. It is evident that the antagonistic influence of sulphate of atropia on the effects of extract of Calabar bean is not nearly so well marked as that of chloral hydrate as an antagonist to the effects of strychnia. Even after the introduction of sulphate of atropia, the symptoms pro- duced by the previously injected extract of Calabar bean contmue to be well marked. The. animal seems to be extremely ill. There are salivation, twitchings of the muscles, and perhaps slight convulsions. This state of things may continue for several hours, and the animal slowly recovers. In the case of strychnia and hydrate of chloral, if the animal be kept undisturbed, it may not exhibit a single indication of the presence of the strychnia, and it becomes roused from the effects of the hydrate of chloral as if it had received it alone.* ♦ It is to be noticed that Dr. Fraser quotes the following experiments made with the extract supplied to him by Dr. Cook. Dr. Frascr's paper, p. 579, Edinburgh Royal Society Trans., vol. xxvi.— Expe- riment 57 (a). A rabbit, weighing 3 lbs. 8oz., received two grains of extract of phy- sostigma, prepared by Dr. Cook, and. one minute and thirty seconds afterwards, 0.5 grain of sulphate of atropia. Recovery took place.—Experiment 57 (Z'}. Nine days afterwards, the same rabbit, now weighing 3 lbs. 8J oz., received one grain of extract of physosticma, prepared by Dr. Cook. Death occurred in thirteen minutes and thirty seconds. Dr. Fraser also observes (p. 575), referring to Experiment 57 (i) : The second portion of the experiment shows that the lethal activity of this extract is consider- ably greater than that of the extract prepared by myself; nevorthele.ss, atropi.t so completely and successfully antagonised the lethal action .is to prevent the occur- rence of any symptom of serious import after the administration of a dose twice as large as that by which death was afterwards produced in about thirteen minutes. It is evident, therefore, that Dr. Fraser must have obtained from Dr. Cook an ex- tract weaker than the one furnished to the committee, because they have never hccn able to save an animal from a dose of extract above three-fourths of a grain. This point is of considerable practic.1l importance, because it shows that extracts, pre- pared even by the same individual, may have different .strengths. C