An experimental inquiry into the physiological action, the poisonous properties, and the therapeutic effects of the hydrocyanic acid / by Henry Lonsdale.

  • Lonsdale, Henry, 1816-1876.
Date:
[1839]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An experimental inquiry into the physiological action, the poisonous properties, and the therapeutic effects of the hydrocyanic acid / by Henry Lonsdale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    can produce its effects, even supposing the investigations of Her- ing, which seem to show that substances are transported with great rapidity along the vascular system, to be correct. The single ex¬ periment made on the jugular vein, which I have detailed at page 47th, did not imply a more speedy action of the acid introduced into the system in this way, than by the trachea, which we should have expected according to the doctrine of absorption. The experimental investigations of Morgan and Addison have elicited important facts in support of the sympathetic doctrine of poisons generally. At the same time I doubt much if these physio¬ logists are correct in stating it to be their own theory,* if by this it is to be understood that it is entirely new. Fifty years have elapsed since Fontana was labouring hard to overturn the same theory, or rather, we should say, that view which Morgan and Addison are apparently inclined to adopt; for they have not explicit¬ ly stated whether it be the sentient extremities of the nerves found in the blood-vessels, or other parts of the body, that serve as the medium of communication between the poisonous agent and the brain. Fontana informs his readers, *f* that he found in some au¬ thors a great difficulty in favour of the influence of the nerves in opposition to the transmissile power of the blood-vessels, in the case of opium injected into the latter,—in the circumstance, that the action of the substance is conveyed suddenly in opposition to the nervous extremities of the red vessels even, and hence the whole of the nervous system. Having stated both sides of this intricate question, and as far as my limits afford to an equal extent, I am willing to believe that, although the hydrocyanic acid is absorbed and carried into the circulation, its modus operandi upon the sentient extremi¬ ties of nerves seems most probable. * Essay on the Operation of Poisonous Agents, p. 60. Lond. 1829. f Traite sur le Venin de la Vipere, Tom. ii. p. 367. Florence, 1781. PRINTED BY JOHN STARK, EDINBURGH.