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
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

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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    Injuring with a needle a certain spot on the surface of the brain of the rabbit peculiar disturbances occur, above all haemorrhage in the lungs and in the tissues of the same, often so pronounced that almost the whole lung is traversed by the haemorrhage.—Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, 1873, p. 397. J. Schrieber has operated on a large number of rabbits with a view to determine the effect of injuries to the brain on the temperature of the body. The injury was made by means of a lancet-shaped needle introduced through the skull. The temperature was measured in the rectum. From about seventy experiments the author concludes that after injury of the pons in all parts, of [the pedunculi cerebri, of the cerebellum and cerebrum, increase of the body temperature occurred when the animals were protected artificially from losing warmth, that the same results followed unconditionally and con- stantly on injury to the limit between the medulla and the pons.—Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, 1873, p. 398. 1st. Ablation of both spheno palatine ganglia does not affect, in dogs and cats, the sense of taste, in parts supplied by the linguals. 2nd. After section of the chorda tympani, in dogs and cats with cut glosso-pharyngei, the taste was little modified in some cases, notably diminished in others, and completely abolished in one. 3rd. . . ■ . After action of the chorda, in cats, dogs, rabbits, and guinea-pigs, degenerated nerve fibres were found in the terminal branches of the lingual as well as in the mucous layer of the tongue and sub- maxillary gland ..... 4th. . . . After section of the chorda in the ear, the central end of this nerve (on the side of its emergence facially) remains healthy.—Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, 1873, p. 398. Curarised dogs in whom artificial respiration was main- tained were used for experiment. After having exposed the glosso-pharyngeal nerve below the base of the cranium, it was tied, and then cut above the ligature, so that its peripheral extremity could be excited by electricity. The effect of the faradisation lasted some time, and could be renewed at pleasure.—The Doctor, June 1st, 1875, p. 105. No. 1. The first pigeon had had the anterior part of both hemispheres removed. The bird'was able to fly and walk, and in every respect seemed to have its faculties intact, except that when it tried to peck up food it never succeeded in getting hold of a single particle. That was what he invariably observed when the anterior part of the cerebral lobes had been removed. No. 2. Showed two pigeons with the posterior part of both hemispheres removed. These were not quite so active as the first bird. He had never seen them attempt to eat at all. No. 3. There were here two pigeons, in which the right cerebral hemispheres had been removed. One could scarcely be able to detect any difference between them and ordinary pigeons. The removing of one cerebral hemis- phere made almost no difference. No. 4. In those classed No. 4 the left cerebral hemisphere had been removed, and the birds were both quite active. They saw on both sides, and were in the same condition as those in No. 3. No. 5 was a bird, the right cerebral hemisphere of which he had removed, along with a considerable slice of the upjjer part of the right corpus striatum. He had shaved off the grey matter that represented the cerebral hemisphere, and had carried the knife deeply through the substance of the brain, so that he was quite sure that he had removed a considerable portion of the right corpus striatum. It would be observed that the bird was blind on the opposite side. No. 6 showed the left cerebral hemisphere and the left half of the corpus striatum removed. The result was exactly the same (only on the other side) as in the other case. This was a point he was very glad to be able to demonstrate, as he was somewhat doubtful about it for a considerable time. He now knew that if he removed the upper part of the corpus striatum there was loss of vision, in the pigeon at all events, on the opposite side. No. 7 was a bird from which he had intended to remove the cerebral hemispheres only, but in the operation he unfortunately injured the upper part of the corpus striatum. The forceps with which he removed the scull- cap slipped deeply into the corpus striatum, so that the bird was much more in the condition of pigeons in which the corpus striatum had been injured as well as the cerebral hemispheres. It could fly, it could walk ; he did not think it saw or heard, or if it did do so it was only to a small extent. It did not manifest any sign of alarm, and if fluiig into the air could fly quite well. Birds in that condition very often attempted to take food, but they never pecked up anything, and birds in this condition required constantly to be fed, so that it became a serious matter to keep a number of them. He gave the birds water, but had to introduce the beak; they dipped their heads deeply into the water, and took one drink. Where the hemispheres and corpus striatum had been removed the birds seldom took a second drink. No. 8. Showed two birds in which the cerebral hemi- spheres alone had been removed. By these he tried to illustrate that consciousness was apparently not entirely lost; one could still frighten the birds. No. 9 was a bird exactly in the same condition as the previous two. No. 10 was a bird on which he had performed the experiment he had described, of injuring the deeper parts of the corpora striata and the cerebral hemispheres by passing a long narrow knife into the side of the head and severing the connection. The corpora striata, though injured, had not been removed. The creature was in a state of deep stupor. No. 11 was a bird in which both cerebral hemispheres had been injured, but not removed. The bird was still able to fly, but he had observed that the creature had not taken any food since the operation. No. 12. In the cases of No. 12 both birds had a large portion of the cerebellum removed, and he thought it would be found that the faculties of the birds were intact, and that they could fly and walk. No. 13. Was a bird in great health. On the 5th March he removed from the animal considerably more than half of the cerebellum. At first the bird staggered slightly in its movements, but now it had completely recovered. Within the last six weeks it had been regaining its plumage, and was now as handsome a pigeon as one could see. Dr. M‘Kendrick concluded by stating that if any wished to see him operating, he would have much pleasure in receiving a visit from them at the Laboratory.—Edinburgh Medical Journal, 1873, pp. 652-3. He experimented exclusively on the brain of the rabbit. On puncturing with a fine microscopic needle a spot lying in the interior of the posterior end of the cerebrum the animal sprung from the table and exhibited unusually violent spasmodic movements, which appeared either at the time of puncture or a second or so thereafter (at the latest two minutes), and lasted not longer than three minutes. Many of the animals so injured had meningitis with dippacu, but asph. and death without meningitis was also observed. More than 40 experiments in different ways and different directions were made in the thalamus opticus. Slight dis- turbance of the superficial layers were without effect. In a few cases the paralysis of the extensors of the finger ob- served by Schiff occurred. If punctured more deeply and towards the middle line, the limbs of the opposite side were directed towards the middle line. This was specially and almost exclusively observed of the fore limbs. The deviation was the most pronounced the more basal the direction of the puncture. The deviation in all cases was only tem- porary, disappearing sometimes after a few hom’s, in most cases after 24 hours. In other cases, immediately after puncture the head was turned to the opposite side, the fore limbs strongly divergent, the one directed outwards, the other (opposite side from injury) towards the middle line. No disturbance of sensibility. [The Editor states that these results are at variance with those alleged to be found by Fournier].—Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, 1873, p. 395. Leyden has made a series of observations upon the movements of the brain, and the blood pressure within the cranium, by means of a manometer screwed into an artificial opening made in the skulls of dogs.—Dr. Rutherford, Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, 1867, PP> 358-9.