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
Catalogue details

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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    B. In Dogs: Sulphate of atropia modifies the physiological action of meconate of morphia, and may even save life after a fatal dose of the latter. The limit, however, is so narrow as to be of no practical service. VI. As to the Antagonism between Tea, Coffee, Tkeine, Caffeine, and Guaranine, on the one hand, and Meconate of Morphia on the other. In this investigation, one hundred and seventeen experiments were performed. 1. Theine is antagonistic to meconate of morphia, inasmuch as the action of the one substance modifies that of the other, and may even save life from a fatal dose of either substance. 2. Meconate of morphia delayed the appearance of the convulsions characteristic of the action of theine; but, on the other hand, theine, if given in large doses, did not affect in a marked degree the action of meconate of morphia, because symptoms of poisoning by theine were soon manifested. 3. Further experiments on cats showed that, {a) while a cat may recover from the effects of a dose of grains of meconate of morphia given alone, it will not recover from the effects of a dose of 2 grains, even although the effects of the latter dose are modified by those fol- lowing the introduction of 4 or 5 grains of theine; {b) that in three cases the animals recovered from the effects of i ^ grains of meconate of morphia and 4 to 5 grains of theine, while they died when the same dose of meconate of morphia was administered eight days afterwards; (c) that, when the dose of theine was increased beyond five grains, the animals invariably died, apparently from the effects of theine. 4. Experiments on rabbits, as to the antagonism between meconate of morphia and theine, were found to be unsatisfactory as regards the purposes of this inquiry, because both drugs produce epileptiform con- vulsions in these animals. 5. The results obtained in investigating the action of caffeine and guaranine as antagonists to meconate of morphia were similar to those observed with reference to theine. 6. Experiments were made on dogs to ascertain the effects of strong infusions of tea and decoctions of coffee as antagonists to meconate of morphia. These were unsatisfactory, chiefly because the tea or coffee was usually vomited so soon as to prevent the possibility of the exercise of any physiological antagonism. At the same time, it was observed in several instances that the administration of tea or coffee so excited the animals as to prevent them from falling into stupor or coma after a dose