A note on the effect of nicotine injection on adrenal secretion / by W.B. Cannon, J.C. Aub and C.A.L. Binger.

  • Walter Bradford Cannon
Date:
[1912?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A note on the effect of nicotine injection on adrenal secretion / by W.B. Cannon, J.C. Aub and C.A.L. Binger. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/12 page 380
    veins. To the catheter was attached a small glass aspirator by which the blood was withdrawn. Before injection of the nicotine solution a sample of blood (to be called ‘‘blood A’’) was extracted. The time of extraction was noted. The blood was transferred immediately to a beaker, defibrinated by whipping, and then set in a water-bath at 37° C. A cannula was now inserted into the right femoral vein and the solution of nicotine (Merck’s) was allowed to run in slowly. The time of this injection was taken. After an interval varying usu- ally between three and five minutes blood was again extracted by means of the catheter, from the same region in the inferior vena cava; the blood was defibrinated as before, and preserved at body temperature. This was “blood B.”’ In some of the ex- periments a third extraction (‘‘blood C’’) was made ten to twelve minutes after the end of the nicotine injection. The several specimens of blood—A, B and C—were then tested for their content of epinephrin. The strip of intestinal muscle, attached to a writing lever, was suspended between two serres jines in a small cylindrical chamber through which air was passed. The chamber was surrounded by water at 37°C. The character- istic inhibition of the rhythmic contractions of the muscle, even when it has been for some time removed from the body, occurs at a dilution of adrenalin 1:2,000,000 in defibrinated blood.® In testing the samples of blood the first step consisted in secur- ing a record of the rhythmic contractions of the intestinal strip when surrounded by warm aérated Ringer’s solution. The solu- tion was then withdrawn by means of a fine pipette, and blood A was substituted. After the muscle had come to a condition of constancy, blood A was withdrawn, and blood B (removed from the animal after the nicotine injection) was substituted. The muscle was again allowed to reach a constant condition, whereupon blood B was replaced by blood A or by Ringer’s solution. The results which were secured are illustrated in the accompany- ing tracings. The animal whose blood-reaction is presented in Fig. 1 received 0.00387 gram (0.75 cc. of 1 :200) of nicotine. The registering § Cannon and de la Paz: Loc. cit., p. 69.
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