A variety of curara acting as muscle-poison / Joseph Tillie.

  • Tillie, Joseph.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A variety of curara acting as muscle-poison / Joseph Tillie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    lation by means of a very strong interrupted current caused any pulsation ; but, when the ventricle was somewhat relaxed and red in colour, the stimulation caused it, within a minute or two to gradually pass into permanent contraction and to become pale. A moderately strong current from a single bichromate cell and Du Bois Reymond’s induction apparatus, applied to the upper end of the spine, immediately after all voluntary and reflex movement had ceased, caused general tetanus. Also, when one sciatic nerve was divided, stimulation of the upper end caused no reflex movement, but stimulation of the lower end readily caused tetanus of that lower extremity. The disappearance of voluntary and reflex movements is due to paralysis of the central nervous system, because, when, in a brainless frog, one leg is protected by ligature of the vessels before the poisoning, the movements of both legs and the reflex effects produced by stimulation of the skin of either leg are equal, and the voluntary and reflex movements disappear in both the poisoned and the unpoisoned leg at the same time. The period at which the paralysis of the central nervous system occurs indicates that it is secondary to the arrest of the circulation. Muscular rigidity set in very early, especially in the thoracic muscles. On the day following the experiment the frog was always in a state of strong general rigor, and the muscles were acid in reaction, and (with the exception of a protected part and sometimes of the unprotected muscles of the foot) were in- excitable to mechanical or electrical stimulation. Stimulation of a motor nerve, after death, continued to cause muscular contractions until the muscles themselves, by only responding to stronger and stronger direct electrical stimulation, showed distinct signs of poisoning. In one experiment (No. 13), where a small dose of curara was employed, the sciatic nerves were found to be excitable 12 hours after the heart was paralysed, but, 10 hours later, the muscles were paralysed. When, in pithed frogs, the poison was applied directly to the heart, after removal of the pericardium, the results varied according to the dose employed. When the dose was about the exact minimum-lethal, the heart continued to pulsate for several hours, the rate then became very slow, and the rhythm, owing to