The physiological action of choline and neurine / F.W. Mott.

  • Mott, F. W. (Frederick Walker), 1853-1926.
Date:
1899
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiological action of choline and neurine / F.W. Mott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    removal of the fluid by tapping has been recommended for the alleviation of the symptoms ; it has, however, been realised that the alleviation that occurs is only temporary, and this method of treatment has in consequence been abandoned in the London asylums.# We have, however, been sufficiently fortunate to secure on several occasions the blood removed for remedial purposes from such patients by venesection, and we regard one of the most important outcomes of our work the discovery that the blood also contains the same toxic material during a seizure. Tire choline evidently reaches the blood via. the cerebro-spinal fluid, which functions as the lymph of the brain. In some cases we have examined the urine also. A good deal of the work has been carried out at the Claybury Asylum, or in the laboratory attached to it. We have to acknowledge here the assistance frequently given us by Dr. Wakelin Barratt, Technical Research Scholar of the London County Council. The greater amount of the chemical examination of the fluid, and all work which necessitated the use of living animals, has been carried out at King’s College, where we have to thank Mr. Arthur Edmunds, B.Sc., for the help lie has always been ready to give us during the course of the experiments, and to whom we owe many suggestions and pieces of apparatus that he devised and made. We also owe assistance in special branches of the work, which will be described in later portions of this paper, to Dr. Waller, F.R.S., and Miss Sowton, to Dr. T. Gregor Brodie, Mr. Leonard Hill, and to Prof. W. H. Thompson. We may add that all the animals employed have been fully anaesthetised during the whole of the experiments. We have sometimes employed ether or chloroform, but generally A.C.E. mixture (alcohol: chloroform : ether : : 1 : 2 : 3). In some few cases, which will be fully described, we have given an injection of morphine, or of a mixture of morphine and atropine as well. If the animals did not die as the result of the injections, they were killed either by asphyxia or chloroform. We may now pass to the actual description of the details of our work,f and this may be most conveniently done under the following headings :— 1. Previous work on the subject. 2. Chemical examination of the cerebro-spinal fluid. 3. Action of choline, neurine, and cerebro-spinal fluid on blood-pressure and respiration. 4. Experiments for the purpose of determining the substance in the cerebro- spinal fluid which produces the fall of blood-pressure. 5. Experiments with oncometers and plethysmographs. * See supplementary note A at end of this paper. f Preliminary communications on our work have been made to the Physiological Society. (See ‘Journal of Physiology,’ vol. 21, p. xviii.; vol. 2 2, p. xxxiv.; vol. 24, p. ix.)