Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: The collected papers of Sydney Ringer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![wliat, at that stage of our knowledge, would be the most obvious conclusion, viz., that this common good result arose from the nutrition of the contracting ventricle by the proteins common to both fluids. Here are the discoverer’s own words on the subject:—^ Blood, then, obviates the changes occurring in the contractions of a ventricle receiving only saline solution, and the question arises, which constituent of the blood has this property ? ’ ^ I find that a small quantity of white-of-egg comj^letely obviates the changes occurring with saline solution. I first took tracings with blood mixture: I then rej^laced the blood with 100 c.c. of saline, and got the usual great prolongation of dilatation. I then added to the saline 25 c.c. of white-of-egg mixture, composed of one part white-of-egg in two parts of water. In two minutes the contractions became exactly as they were when the heart was supplied with blood mixture. White-of-egg consists of albumins and chloride of potassium and sodium, chiefly chloride of potassium. It is obvious in the preceding experiment that the effect of white-of-egg could not be due to the sodium chloride. The power to obviate the great prolongation of the dilatation occurring when the ventricle was supplied with saline solution mirst, then, be due to the albumins or the potassium chloride.’ ‘ I find that potassium chloride in small quantities, much smaller than exists in serum, will completely and speedily obviate the character of the trace occurring with saline solution, and give a trace in all respects like that occurring when the ventricle is supplied with blood mixture.’ [References to the tracings here.] ‘ I first took a tracing with blood mixture, and then replaced the blood with 100 c.c. of saline solution. After about 15 minutes I obtained the usual great prolongation of the ventricular dilatation. I then added to tlie 100 c.c. of circulating saline 0’7 c.c. of 1 per cent, solution of potassium chloride at the point indicated by the arrow; very speedily the contraction became modified, the dilatation becoming much shorter. Ten minutes after the addition of the potassium chloride the contraction became just like those at the beginning of the experiment when the ventricle was supplied with blood. From numerous experiments, I find that from 0’6 c.c. to 1 c.c. of 1 per cent, solution of potassium chloride to the 100 c.c. of saline solution is sufficient to remove the prolongation of dilatation occurring with saline solution.’ At the date of this paper the ionization theory of Arrhenius had not yet appeared on the scientific horizon, and hence it is most interesting to](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28036530_0001_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
