Sleep and the treatment of its disorders / [R.D. Gillespie].

  • Gillespie, R. D. (Robert Dick), 1897-1945.
Date:
1929
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Sleep and the treatment of its disorders / [R.D. Gillespie]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    bromide in the central nervous system. All the cells of the latter, cortical, medullary, and spinal, appear to be affected about the same time, and the specific action of bromides on them has usually been considered to consist in a general depression of excitability. This is suggested by the results of electrical stimulation of the cortex in dogs who have had much bromide; in such circumstances it is impossible to produce convulsions even by continuous irritation. But Pawlow maintains that bromides act, not as direct sedatives diminishing sensibility, but by strengthening the activity of internal inhibition. He demonstrated this as follows. He selected a dog of excitable temperament, which responded very readily to environmental stimuli, and in which also inhibitions very easily developed— for example, sleep was readily induced during the course of an experiment. In this dog a conditioned reflex was built up to one stimulus, and the setting up of another conditioned reflex to a similar stimulus was then attempted. The attempt succeeded as long as the second stimulus was like, but not too like, the first. When the two stimuli closely approached identity, the whole demeanour of the animal changed abruptly. “ The hitherto quiet dog began to squeal on its stand, kept wriggling about, tore off with its