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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$hypodermic syringe into each thigh at 12.42 p.m. 12.50, crouching; 12.55, crouching, feathers ruffled ; 1.5, sluggish, eyes closed, drowsy; 1.30, stands with head depressed, feathers staring, eyes closed, very drowsy; 2, very drowsy, head di'ooping; after this the fowl slowly recovered, and on Monday 24th was quite well. The poison in this experiment must have been infinitesimal in quantity, only 40 drops of the blood of a full-grown dog poisoned by a cobra were injected. The symptoms of poison were well marked, though the bird ultimately recovered. No. 6. A solution of one part of cobra poison to eight parts of liquor potassae was prepared by Dr. Ewart, and of this nine drops were injected into a fowEs thigh at 12.57 p.m. There was a floculent-looking deposit caused by the mixture of the fluids. 1 a.m., drooping; 1.2, crouching ; head falling over, nearly paralysed ; 1.4, con- vulsed ; 1.7) dead, in seven minutes, with all the symptoms of cobra poisoning. . . . . • No. .8. Twenty drops of the blood of the above fowl, removed immediately after death, injected into either thigh of a fowl.at 1.10 p.m. 2.15, sluggish; 4.10, drowsy, head falls over; 4.20, no convulsions; 7-15, dead, in six hours and 15 minutes. . ... No. 10. A fowl was bitten in the thigh by a Bungarus coeruleus (Krait) at 1.22 p.m. 2.24, feathers staring, eyes have a fixed glaring stare; 1.25, stretches out the neck, falls over, point of beak resting on the ground; 1.26, con- \ulsed, puncture in thigh ecchymosed and oedematous; 1.29, dead, in seven minutes. No. 11. A cat was bitten in the thigh by a cobra (Tentuliah keauteah) at 1.46 p.m. Mr. O. Alexander’s antidote and extract was administered, according to his instructions, immediately, 1.47 p.m. Pupils widely dilated; cat lies stretched out, hurried breathing ; 1.51, con- vulsed; 1,52, paralysed, heart still beats, no respiration; 1.55, dead, in nine minutes. This cat was on a former occasion bitten by a large Bungarus fasciatus, and showed no sign of poisoning. No. 12. A fowl was bitten in the thigh by a large Bungarus fasciatus at 1.44 p.m.- 1.54, drooping head, falling forwards; 1,58, convulsed, cannot stand; 2p.m., convulsive movements ; there is a peculiar vocal sound as though the thorax v/as compressed; 2.5, convulsed; 2.10, dead, in 26 minutes. . . . • No. 13. A young rat was bitten in the thigh by a Bungarus coeruleus at 2 p.m.; insensible immediately, dead in 30 seconds.—Ibid, 1870-71, p. 721. Veyssiere has recently made some experiments on the App. IV localization of sensibility in the dog. The method he em- . ployed was to introduce a puncture in the cranium. The stylet was then withdrawn, and another bearing a concealed spring which could be thrust out at an angle from its extremity was pushed down the cannula, the spring pro- jected and the requisite laceration made, the spring recovered, and the instrument withdrawn. No. 1. The lesion was limited to the posterior part of the intraventricular portion of the corpus striatum and the anterior part of the optic thalamus on the left side. Imper- fect hemiplegia and hemiancoesthesia of the right side. The hemiplegia passed ofP in twenty-four hours, the animal was well in three days. [The other foiu experiments are of the same character.] —Edinburgh Medical Journal, January 1875, p. 659. By means of a sharpened spoon the outer and upper portion of the anterior lobe of the hemisphere was so far removed that the parts lying immediately outside of the anterior portion of the lateral ventricle were exposed, without, however, opening the ventricle. (The anterior can be opened without injury.) The deepest part and that lying next the middle line in this prepared surface corre- sponds to the corpus striatum. When the surface of the corpus striatum was stimulated electrically, it was shown — 1st. That movements of the muscles of the opposite side occurred upon the application of weak induced currents. 2nd. That the points where stimulation of the intact surface of the brain was followed by distinct groups of movements are also present on the surface of the corpus striatum. 3rd. That the opposite position of the active points is the same in the corpus striatum as in the surface of the brain. If the deepest part of the corpus striatum is stimulated the animal opens its mouth, puts out its tongue, and draws it in again alternately. These are the movements whose centres are pretended to be found on the convolutions of the under surface of the brain, i.e., lower frontal and suprasylvian convolutions.— Dr. Saiiderson, Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, No- vember 1874, p. 209. Irritation of the roots of the pneumogastric, in Bernard’s famous experiment of punctme of the fourth ventricle, has the same efPect as similation of its trunk. This experiment is performed by pushing an instrument like a bradawl through the skull and cerebellum till it reaches the olivary fasciculi in the medulla, oblongata.— Dr. Brunton, British Medical Journal, No. 680, pp. 40 and 41. For the experiments «ow-narcotised dogs were for the most part employed, the surface of the brain being stimu- lated by weak induced currents. In general, the facts already known were confirmed. After stimulation with quite weak currents, after move- ments, dependent on the stimulated centre, were manifested by the muscles, which movements often passed into general convulsions, but could only be produced from the points which were to be regarded as so-called centra.—Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, February 1875, p. 210. The author’s experiments upon rabbits confirm the statement of Riegel and Jolly that the vessels of the pia mater do not contract upon a stimulus being applied to peripheral sensory nerves. After an. experiment upon a tracheotomised rabbit (to which no curare had been given) had shown that this poison had no effect on the vasto motor channels; it was tried to investigate the central circulation without trepanning, and with the ex- clusion of air, viz., by ophthalmoscopic examination of the retinal vessels. The occurrence of a strong and continual flow of tears, rendered every attempt at examination fruitless. Lastly the experiments with trepanning and the setting a piece of glass in the skull seemed to be useless, in that the action of the air caused inflammation.—Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, February 1875, p. 213. In his'experiments on this subject, Afanasieff divided one or both peduncles through a hole in the temporal bone. In consequence of the transitory irritation which the section produced the animal immediately afterwards drew itself together, the head was inclined to that side on which the peduncle had been divided, the pupils became contracted, especially on that side, and the arteries of the ears also contracted, but their contraction was more marked in the ear of the opposite side. In six seconds after the operation all the above-mentioned effects were succeeded by their opposites. The irritation also produced increased flow of tears and saliva, and twitchings of the extremities on the side opposite the section, all of which lasted for half an hour. Section of one peduncle between the pons and the tuber cinereum produced paralysis of the muscles of the extremities on the opposite side, and of those of the back and neck on the same side. The amount of paralysis increased with time. ..... In two [or three weeks it was again able to run straight forward.—Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, 1871-2, p. 218. Dr. Schuller (Berlin) performed experiments on rabbits by removing with a trephine a portion of the upper part of the parietal bone without injuring the dura mater, and generally at the same time taking away the cervical sym- pathetic with the superior cervical ganglion of the same side. He was thus able to observe the vessels of the pia mater, and to notice any changes in their filling. The substances with which he experimented were mustard, nitrite of amyl, ergotin, opium, and chloroform. Small sinapisms produced scarcely any effect on the vessels, the application of large ones, on the one hand, was first regularly followed by dilatation, which was followed by more or less rapidly alternating changes in the calibre of the vessels, and finally by contraction, which often con- tinued an hour and a half after the removal of the sinapism. —British Medical Journal, February 1875, p. 279.$