The action of adrenalin and ergotamine on the uterus of the rabbit / by J.H. Gaddum.

  • Gaddum, J. H. (John Henry), 1900-1965.
Date:
[1926?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The action of adrenalin and ergotamine on the uterus of the rabbit / by J.H. Gaddum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [Reprinted from the Journal oj Physiology, Vol. LXI. No. 1, March 18, 1926.] THE ACTION OF ADRENALIN AND ERGOTAMINE ON THE UTERUS OF THE RABBIT. By J. H. GADDUM. (From the Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories.) When a rabbit’s uterus is cut in pieces and tested with ergot alkaloids and adrenalin, according to the technique introduced by Broom and Clark(i) as a test for ergot alkaloids, it gives reactions which are notably consistent over long periods. These reactions have been further considered in the hope of arriving at a more precise idea of their nature. The action of varying concentrations of adrenalin. The rabbits used weighed from 1-8 to 3 kilos. Some of them were pregnant, some were not. The volume of the baths was about 20 c.c. each and they were contained in a water bath similar to that used by Dale for assaying pituitary extracts. The oxygen was delivered in small bubbles through a fine jet. The tension on the muscle was about 1 gram weight. About 1 mg. of Sandoz ergotamine was weighed out each morning and dissolved in water to a strength of 1/5000 by the addition of 2 drops of 3 p.c. acetic acid. The adrenalin used was Burroughs, Wellcome and Co.’s 1/1000 solution. The drugs were diluted with water and added to the bath in volumes which varied from 0T5 to 1 c.c. The Ringer solution used was: NaCl -9 p.c., KC1 -042 p.c., CaCl2 -024 p.c., NaHC03 *05 p.c., glucose T p.c. According to Clark a uterine horn should be cut into pieces about 1 cm. long and each piece should be divided in the plane of the mesentery and secured in the apparatus by its anti-mesenteric border. The value of this was confirmed. At the attachment of the mesentery the uterus seems unable to relax. When pieces of large uteri were divided into four quarters, the quarters free of mesentery worked well and the others did not. The pieces of uterus kept well in an ice box on glass, but after they had been in the bath some time they began spontaneously to produce a series of short-lived contractions returning always to the same base line. This rhythm was particularly marked in the pregnant uteri. The addition of adrenalin had the effect of raising the base line