The relation of tetanus to the hypodermic or intramuscular injection of quinine / by Sir D. Semple. --.

  • Semple, David, Sir, 1856-1937.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The relation of tetanus to the hypodermic or intramuscular injection of quinine / by Sir D. Semple. --. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    but they can stand fairly large doses without any apparent injury other than the local effects when given hypodermically. (a) Quinine hypoilermieally. When large doses of quinine are given hypoderirically to rabbits and guinea pigs, they rapidly come under its influence, and death takes place in a few hours. A large dose for a guinea pig would be 1 grain per 150 grammes weight of animal. One grain per 150 grammes of guinea pig is a certain lethal dose; but I have known 1 grain per 233 grammes to prove fatal in some cases and not in others, so there is evidently an individual factor difficult to account for. On this account it would be impossible to arrive at a minimum lethal dose for all cases, and to express it in grains per gram,m.es of guinea pig, and to say that this amount would kill with absolute certainty. Some years ago, when it was the practice to standardise antityphoid vaccine- by arriving at the minimum lethal dose for a guinea pig of a certain weight, a simi- lar individual factor interfered with its accuracy, and to such an extent that the method had to be abandoned and other more accurate methods of standardising,, such as counting the bacilli, adopted. On the other hand it is possible to come somewhere near a minimum lethal dose of quinine, which, without leaving much of a margin, would never fail to kill,, and such a dose is 1 grain per 150 grammes of guinea pig. I have never known guinea pigs to survive this amount when given hypodermically, and in some cases, smaller doses have proved fatal. It is easy to arrive at a dose which will produce well-marked visible effects without killing the animal, and such a dose is 1 grain per 350 grammes of guinea pig. This amount can be given hypodermically for several days in succession without proving fatal, except perhaps in a few cases indirectly by the production of severe sloughs at the seat of injection and the suppuration which accompanies them^ When large doses are given to guniea pigs, symptoms set in within 10 minutes.. The symptoms take the form of convulsive muscular spasms, which set in gradually and soon become more pronounced and severe, and the animal dies asphyxia- ted. For some time before death the animal lies in its cage, but slight twitching of the muscles and limbs are apparent, and when disturbed these become more severe. The rapidity and severity with which symptoms set in and prove fatal depends on the amount of quinine given. When 1 grain per 150 grammes of weight is given symptoms set in within ten minutes, and a fatal result may be ex- pected any time between 4 and 24 hours. When larger doses are given symptoms appear a few minutes earlier, and death takes place in all cases under 24 hours. A glance at the experiments detailed in Table T will serve to explain all that is necessary on the subject.