Report of the Royal Commission on the practice of subjecting live animals to experiments for scientific purposes : with minutes of evidence and appendix.

Great Britain. Royal Commission on Vivisection

Date:: 1876

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the practice of subjecting live animals to experiments for scientific purposes : with minutes of evidence and appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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$twitchings are seen, and after a few clonic spasms the animal dies, frequently in a state of episthotonos. This is the general pictui’e of the action of a minimum lethal dose which kills in from one to two hours. With a larger dose the symptoms are more intense. The animal becomes much e.xcited, the pupil contracts with great rapidity to its smallest diameter, and after screaming for a few seconds, as if in great pain, it dies in convulsions. With a smaller dose the phenomena just noticed follow consecutively, but the symptoms are less acute, and after a period of stupor the rabbit may recover. A dose of five grains produces great distress within four or five minutes. The animal is excited and appears to suffer acute pain. This condition is coincident in time with the contraction of the pupil and the dilatation of the blood- vessels. During the fii’st four or fiv'e minutes the animal is quite able to run or leap, but at the end of that period there is staggering, and very soon the power of voluntary movement is lost. ..... When the chord has been involved several convulsions ensue. During the paralytic condition the nerves are still sensitive to very weak induced currents. The sensibility and conducting power appear to be intact. The action is therefore on the cerebral and spinal centres, and not on the peripheral terminations of the nerves.—Dr. McKendrick, Physiological Laboratory, University of Edinburgh. — Edinburgh Medical Journal, July 1874-5, p. 2. Note.—Since the above was \vritten, I have experimented by injecting acetic acid into the pleural sac of the horse. The experiment was made more for the purpose of deter- mining the rapidity with which false membranes may form in the chest in pleurisy, and the results are as follows ;— Before the experiment the temperature was 96'4°, pulse 40, and respirations 12. The acid was injected at 10. 35 a.m. At 10. 50 the animal was restless, with a pulse of 48. At 11. 15 there was observed twitching of the superficial muscles of the right side, with slight gastric tympany, and a pulse of 52. At 12 the temperature was 101'4, and now and there was a slight abdominal breathing, with a visible line of demarcation, while the pulse-vyas 54 and hard. The animal remained in this condition for some time, and at 8 p.m. it was found that the pulse had risen to 105°. On the following day (morning) those symptoms had passed off. The animal was slaughtered forty-eight hours arter the injection. A post-mortem having been made, there were found bands of lymph, partly organised on the pleural surface, hydrops pericardii, the quantity of the serum taken from the pericardium being about a quart. The pericar- dium and endocardium were both highly injected—“ The Frinciples and Practice of Veterinary Medicine,^’ by William Williams, M.R.C.V.S., F.R.S.E., §-c., p. 336. To ascertain this they tested the first material ejected in vomiting in a number of dogs into whose veins tartar- emetic had been injected, and found that it always contained some of the antimonial salt. The fact that efforts to vomit may still occur after the stomach has been excised they do not regard as at all opposed to their view, since the salt may act on the peripheric extremities of nerves supplying the oesophagus or intestine, which also may have the power of inducing vomiting reflectorially.—Lancet, No. 2,561, p. 463. • To prevent coagulation of the blood. Dr. Braxton Hicks has recommended the addition of a small quantity of phosphate of soda (Guy’s Hospital Reports, 1868, p. 14), and Dr. Richardson minute quantities of ammonia. Even in very small proportions, the ammonia not only prevents or retards coagulation, but in transfusion it acts as a stimulant to the system. Great care is required in using it. Injected into the veins of a dog, insufficiently diluted, it produced convulsions.—Dr. Madge, British Medical Journal, No. 680, p. 43. The experiments made at Norwich by Dr. Magnan were similar to the following, described by himself several years ago :—The dangers of prolonged indulgence in absinthe drinking have been pointed out by many writers, and recently experiments have been made to ascertain the nature of the poisonous action ofthis substance. Drs. Mag- nan and Bouchereau add some facts to what is already known (Comptes Rendus, 5 Avril 1869); they administered the poison to dogs, cats, rabbits, and guinea-pigs, and found that convulsions of an epileptic character were quickly produced. The convulsions, they further show. are caused by some component part of the Artemisia Absinthium, and not by the alcohol in which it is dissolved, —Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, 1870, p. 313. In order to compare the capability of resistance in in- flamed parts with that in the normal condition, v. W. produced inflammation of the mesentery of the frog by means of cantharides. The animal was injected next day, and always at the same time a sound one for comparison. The injected matter consisted of water, soluble Berlin blue, and gelatine; and the injection was made by means of Hering’s apparatus with constant pressure. The result of 70 experiments was, that as well in normal as in inflamed mesentery, the injected mass passed through the walls of the vessels. ..... Similar results were obtained by another series of experi- ments, where the frog pumped the mass into the vessels by the action of its own heart.—Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, February 1875, p. 228. Vulpian exposed the heart of a curarised dog, and in order to diminish the rapidity of its movements, a quan- tity of infusion of digitalis was injected into the femoral vein.—Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, February 1875, p. 230. The animals used for experiment were the dog, the rabbit, the sheep, and the frog. Into the dog were trans- fused the blood of the sheep, of the cat, of the guinea-pig, of man, the frog, the calf and the pigeon; into the rabbit, that of the hare, sheep, calf, and man; and the blood of man into the sheep. A special series of experiments was made with frogs, which were injected with the blood of the dog, rabbit, sheep, man, calf, guinea-pig, pigeon, and pike. The blood of the rana temporaria was also injected into the rana esculents. The results of these painful experiments are given thus :— “ In many kinds of blood also, when mixed with the “ blood of the serum of other species, the -blood corpuscles “ are seen to run together into masses ; and these masses, “ when transfusion is made into the venous system, may “ block up the pulmonary capillaries and give rise to very “ formidable symptoms.” Dr. Laudois remarks that numerous experiments with various modifieations are required for the solution of the questions that await an answer.—British Medical Journal, No. 687, pp. 280 and 281. Dr. Guerin has repeated an experiment which was per- formed by Blundell and others long ago, a sort of double transfusion. Two dogs are placed side by side, and the carotid artery of each animal connected by means of a tube with the jugular vein of the other. In this way they obtain a common circulation, after the fashion of the Siamese twins. Although a most interesting experiment^ this can only be regarded as one of the curiosities of trans- fusion.—British Medical Journal, No. 680, p. 44. The Poison of some Indian Venomous Snakes administered to Dogs, Sfc. by Drs. Brunton and Payer. The general symptoms are depression, faintness, hurried respiration and exhaustion, lethargy, nausea and vomiting. In guinea-pigs and rabbits peculiar twitching movements occur which seem to represent vomiting in them, and occasionally in fact, guinea-pigs do vomit. Dogs vomit, are salivated, and present an appearance as if the hair had all been rubbed the wrong way, “staring.” As the poisoning proceeds paralysis appears, sometimes affecting the hind legs first and seeming to creep up the body, and sometimes affecting the whole animal nearly at the same time. There is a loss of co-ordinating power of the muscles of locomotion. Haemorrhage, relaxation of the sphincters, and involun- tary evacuations, not unfrequently of a sanguineous or muco-sanguineous character, often precede death, and it is generally accompanied by convulsions. In fowls the appearance is one of extreme drowsiness; the head falls forwards, rests on the beak, and gradually the bird, no longer able to support itself, rolls over on its side. There are frequent startings, as if of sudden awaking from the drowsy state. .... Experiment 1.—1.30. Three drops of this, diluted %vith water, were injected into the flank of a small dog. Imme- diately after the injection the corresponding leg was drawn u]) partially paralyzed. 1.32. He walks less steadily. Tail rigidly held out.$