The action of chloroform upon the heart and arteries / by E.A. Schäfer and H.J. Scharlieb.

  • Sharpey-Schäfer, E. A. (Edward Albert), Sir, 1850-1935.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The action of chloroform upon the heart and arteries / by E.A. Schäfer and H.J. Scharlieb. 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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    XII.—The Action of Chloroform upon the Heart and Arteries. By E. A. Schafer, F.R.S., and H. J. Scharlieb, M.D., C.M.G. (From the Physiological Laboratory of the University of Edinburgh.) (Communicated March 21, 1904. MS. received August 17, 1904. Issued separately December 14, 1904.) The original design of this research was to determine whether the extract of suprarenal medulla (or its active principle) has the power of antagonising the effects of an overdose of chloroform upon the heart and arterial system. Incidentally the research became extended so as to cover the action of certain other antagonising agents. It further appeared necessary, as the investigation proceeded, to subject the action of chloroform upon the vascular system to renewed study. For although, as the result of numerous recent researches, physiologists are in agreement regarding the general effect of the drug upon the heart, there yet remain various points requiring elucidation both as regards its effect on the heart and on the arteries. Effect of Chloroform upon the Arteries. Singularly little is precisely known as to the effect of the drug upon the arterial system. The most generally received opinion has been that adopted by Bowditch and Minot # to the effect that chloroform exerts, besides a specific action on the heart, a paralysing influence upon the whole vasomotor system, and that the fall of blood- pressure which accompanies its administration is due as well to the dilatation of vessels as to the effect which it produces upon the cardiac musculature. On the other hand, Arloing,! as the result of observations on the rate of flow through the carotid, made by means of the hsemadromograph, inferred that a constriction of arterioles is produced by the drug. Dastre J came to the same conclusion, and referred to it the pallor of the face which is seen in chloroform administration. But it is obvious that a diminution of rate in the carotid might be caused by dilatation of vessels in the splanchnic area, so that these observations cannot be regarded as conclusive. Gaskell and Shore,§ in their cross-circulation experiments, obtained distinct evidence of stimula- tion of the vasomotor centre; constriction of arterioles and rise of blood-pressure occurring as the result of the action of the drug upon the medulla oblongata. Roy and Sherrington || inferred that constriction of cerebral vessels is produced by chloro- * Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 1874. Cf. Leonard Hill, Brit. Med. Jour., April 1897. t Thfese, Paris, 1879. J Les Anesthetiques, 1890. § Brit. Med. Jour., 1893, vol. i. || Jour. Physiol., vol. xi. p. 97, 1890.