Anaesthetics used in experiments on animals / issued by The Research Defence Society.

  • Research Defence Society (Great Britain)
Date:
[1908?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Anaesthetics used in experiments on animals / issued by The Research Defence Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    culated to give pcain. Indeed, apart from all question of humanity, it is impossible to imagine an experimenter deliberately using curare instead of an anaesthetic. As Sir Richard Douglas Powell said to the Royal Commis- sion, “ Curare is very expensive, and very difficult to obtain—very diiOBcult indeed—and I cannot conceive of any man using curare for any other purpose than to prevent reflex muscular movements which would interfere with his experiments under an anaesthetic. To substitute it for an anaesthetic would be a piece of clumsy extravagance which I cannot imagine any sen- sible man makino- use of.” O It is to be noted that curare is only used in conjunc- tion with an anaesthetic in those cases in which the animal is killed under the anaesthetic without recovering consciousness; thus, Prof Starling is asked [Q. 4056), “ Is curare ever given under certificate B in cases of animals that are to recover from the anaesthesia?” A. Never. Q. 4057. “Therefore every animal that has curare is, so to speak, bound to die under the anaesthe- tic ? ” A. Yes. Prof Starling explained to the Commission the cir- cumstances which would require the use of curare. “ A case in which one must use curare is where one is exciting, say, a nerve going to the arm.^ We know that this nerve going to tlie arm contains fibres which will cause contrac- tion of muscles, and which will also cause eontraction of blood-vessels. If we want to get a contraction of blood- vessels, we cannot record these, or see whether they contract, if the muscles are contracting at the same time; so we should give eurare, which would paralyse the nerves ending in the muscles, but would not paralyse * It hardly needs to be pointed out that the stimulation of the efferent fibres of a nerve does not cause pain.