Volume 1

St. Andrew's Medical Graduates Association : transactions 1867-1868 / edited by L.W. Sedgwick.

Date:
1868-1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: St. Andrew's Medical Graduates Association : transactions 1867-1868 / edited by L.W. Sedgwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    De Iluiters statement, having seen the effects of atropina on eyes of animals of which the heart was taken out and the cerebrum destroyed, I incline to believe that our famous alkaloid produces a state in the tissues of the eyeball, which is not exactly identical with paralysis of the oculomotorius. Still the experiments ought to be repeated. Meanwhile we make no essential mistake if we say, that atropina acts preferably on that mechanism, by the aid of which the oculomotorius contracts the pupil. c. The last series of experiments comprise those made in using the curara and calabar bean. As to the effects the curara produces on the movements of the iris, those physiologists who have worked on this subject are somewhat in accord. Dr, Gianuzzi* observed : a. that in dogs poisoned by curara, to such a degree that induction cur- rents applied to motor nerves no longer produced contraction in the limbs, and kept alive by artificial respiration, irritation of the grand sympathetic still produced dilatation ; /3. that the pupils of such animals still contract when irritated by light; y. that atropina applied to the conjunctiva of such an animal still dilates the pupil; 8. that such a pupil contracts when the sympathetic nerve is cut. Dr. Keuchel’sf experiments gave the same results. When he galvanised the sympathetic he got dilatation, and then the common motor of the eye being irritated he saw the pupil contract while the muscles of the eyeball remained in their relaxed state. I myself am fully convinced of the correctness of these statements ; it is only the last one of Dr. Gianuzzi that I still entertain some doubts about. As to calabar bean, its myotic effect, discovered by Pro- fessor Fraser in 1862, is sufficiently admitted; but respecting the idea that is entertained of the parts it attacks, the opinions widely differ. Although I almost believe that, at present, no experiment has been planned to settle the question, I will discuss the matter, that perhaps we may get the conviction of the inefficiency of the promulgated theories, and be induced to look for such facts as may bear criticism. One of these theories consists in supposing that the sympathetic is paralysed.;]; It is based on two facts : first, irri- tation of the sympathetic produces either only a very small dilata- * Medicinisches Centralblatt, 1864, p. 321. See also Rogow in Henle’s Zeitschrift, Dritte Reihe, Bd. xxix. 1, p. 9. f Das Atropin und die Hemmungsnerven, Dorpat, 1868. f Bernstein and Dogiel, Centralblatt fur die Med. Wissenschaften, 1866, p. 453 ; partly also Hirschmann and Rosenthal, Reichart and Du Bois- Raymond’s Archiv., 1863, p. 309.