The direct action of atropine, homatropine, hyoscine, hyoscyamine, and daturine on the heart of the dog, terrapin, and frog / by H.G. Beyer.

  • Beyer, Henry Gustav, 1850-1918.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The direct action of atropine, homatropine, hyoscine, hyoscyamine, and daturine on the heart of the dog, terrapin, and frog / by H.G. Beyer. 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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    poses is possible, and for this reason no further examination of this point has been made in this paper. Perhaps the peculiarly wide interest attaching to the subject itself will be considered an adequate cloak for the bareness with which the said facts have been presented. 3 - THE DIRECT ACTION OF ATROPINE, HOMATROPINE, HYOSCINE, HYOSCYAMINE, AND DATURINE ON THE HEART OF THE DOG, TERRAPIN, AND FROG. By H. G. Beyer, M.D., M.R.C.S., PASSED ASSISTANT SURGEON U. S. N., HONORARY CURATOR, SECTION MATERIA MEDICA, U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. The alkaloid “ atropia ” was discovered about fifty years ago by Mein, Hesse, and Geiger. Since that time a host of experimenters have been engaged in the investigation of the action of this drug. So difficult and perplexing, however, has been the study of its physi- ological properties, that more than half a century has elapsed without bringing the question to a final or generally satisfactory issue, notwith- standing the fact that many of the most prominent physiologists of the present day have been more or less engaged in grappling with the problem. A perusal of the unusually rich literature of the subject, with its numerous controversies, bears, indeed, ample testimony of the great diffi- culty which the interpretation of even the most simple physiological phenomena may, at times, present, and points out the many dangers of forming erroneous conclusions from apparently the most precise and accurately performed operations. So far as the action of atropia on the heart is concerned, the best authorities still differ in about the following points: (1) That its action may be fully explained by assuming that a paralyzing influence is exerted on the terminal filaments of the pneumo- gastrics ; (2) that atropia at first stimulates and then paralyzes these filaments; and (3) that it not only paralyzes the terminal filaments of the pneumogastrics, but also stimulates the vasomotor apparatus of the heart. From some of my former experiments with atropia on the heart and bloodvessels of cold-blooded animals, I was led to conclusions which differ materially from those which are generally accepted by the majority of authors. The results thus obtained seemed to point clearly to the fact that both the inhibitory and vasomotor apparatus of the heart became ex- cited under the influence of atropia. The reduced ventricular rate fol- NO. CLXXXVI.—APRIL, 1887. 24: