On the local action of poisons / by Charles Cogswell.

  • Cogswell, Charles, 1813-1892.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the local action of poisons / by Charles Cogswell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/16 (page 6)
    their vitality as near the natural standard as possible. Having injected a strong infusion of opium through an opening in the small intestine both of the sheep and the rabbit, while the peristaltic movement was active, I observed that the imme¬ diate effect was an energetic contraction of the bowel towards the axis, attended certainly with a suspension of the peristaltic movement, but this clearly because the effect of the foreign body had been to stimulate, so as to throw the circular fibres of the muscular coat into irregular and excessive action. In a rabbit which was killed purposely to prevent delay in ex¬ posing the intestine for this experiment, the part next the opening through which the infusion of opium was injected shrunk instantly to the condition of a mere cord; but in a few minutes afterwards it returned to its former capacity, and at the same time renewed the peristaltic movement. If the living intestine of an animal be gently irritated with the point of a knife, the part acted on, according to my observa¬ tion, ceases to participate in the peristaltic movement; it con¬ tracts, and the result is a furrow or stricture; but by-and-by this disappears, and its previous diameter is restored. A drop of alcohol has the same effect as the knife in producing con¬ striction; so likewise have opium (in strong infusion), hydro¬ cyanic acid, conia, and nicotina. Whatever may be the nature of their ulterior influence, in this primary effect they all agree. But again, though unable to admit, on the authority of the evidence above quoted, that opium and ticunas have the power of immediately paralyzing the bowel, I believe it is very possible that they may have a tendency to do so after an ap¬ preciable lapse of time. Such, at least, appears to be the case with conia and nicotina, which, from their physcial constitu¬ tion, are peculiarly adapted for trying the experiment. Minute portions of these fluid alkaloids being applied to the intestines of newly-killed frogs, the first phenomenon was always a local constriction; but in an hour, more or less, the parts to which they had been respectively applied presented a remarkable bulging outwards, as if they had become flaccid from paralysis. Conia and nicotina applied in like manner to the voluntary muscles of the frog, produced vivid contrac¬ tions of the fibres at the points of contact. Hydrocyanic acid, opium (in strong infusion), alcohol, chloroform, and the dilute mineral acids, all had the same effect—that of causing the