On the alterations in the action of digitalis produced by febrile temperature / by T. Lauder Brunton and J. Theodore Cash.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
[1884]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the alterations in the action of digitalis produced by febrile temperature / by T. Lauder Brunton and J. Theodore Cash. 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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    is, that a high temperature lessens the inhibitory power of the vagus centre in the medulla to such an extent that digitalis, and probably all drugs which act like digitalis on this centre lose, to a great extent, their power to restrain the action of the heart and slow the pulse. The administration of digitalis, or of drugs which act like it, to patients in a febrile condition, is, therefore, likely to have much less effect on the pulse than at the normal temperatuie, and if the temperature be very high they may have no effect at all whilst this persists. When the temperature begins to fall the pulse naturally becomes slower, and this slowness is increased if digitalis has been given at the height of the fever. It is, therefoie, evident that digitalis and its congeners, if they are given at all when the temperature is high, should be given with great care, for other- wise the medical man may be induced, by the apparent maction of the remedy, to push its administration too far during the fever, with the consequence of producing too great depression of the pulse duriug defervescence.
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