Volume 5

The elements of materia medica. Comprehending the natural history, preparation, properties, composition, effects and uses of medicines / [Jonathan Pereira].

  • Pereira, Jonathan, 1804-1853.
Date:
1839-1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of materia medica. Comprehending the natural history, preparation, properties, composition, effects and uses of medicines / [Jonathan Pereira]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    47/592 (page 21)
    Fig. 9. Fie. 10. Fie. 11. ‘a Ir ST ap YIM Double Brass tube. Double circulation between the Single cylindrical Carotids of a poisoned and Brass tubes. a sound dog. animal exhibited the usual tetanic symptoms which result from the action of this poison, and died in little less than four minutes afterwards, viz. about seven minutes from the time at which the poison was inserted, during the whole of which period a free and mutual interchange of blood between the two was clearly indicated by the strong pulsation of the denuded vessels throughout their whole course. The arteries were next secured by ligature, and the living was separated from the dead animal ; but neither during the operation, nor subsequently, did the survivor shew the slightest symptom of the action of the poison upon the system. The inference which has been drawn from this experiment is, that the arterial blood of an animal under the influence of poison is not poisonous. But it appears to me that this is not a necessary inference, and as it is opposed to the result of other experiments, it requires careful investiga- tibn ere we admit it. Verniere has proved that if the extract of nux -vomica “be thrust into the paw of an animal after a ligature has been tightened round the leg, so as to stop the venous, but not the arterial cir- culation of the limb, blood drawn from an orifice in a vein between the wound and ligature, and transfused into the vein of another animal, will excite in the latter the usual effects of the poison, so.as even to cause death ; while, on the contrary, the animal from which the blood has been taken will not be affected at all, if a sufficient quantity is withdrawn before the removal of the ligature.’—(Christison’s Treatise on Poisons, 3d ed. . 10.) ‘ Mr. Travers, (op. cit.) in noticing the. different results obtained by Verniére and Messrs. Morgan and Addison, observes, that “if it be inquired why the poisoned blood concentrated below a ligature, and trans- ferred into the vein of a healthy animal, proves destructive, while the blood of their common circulation affects only the one of the two animals which is, the subject of the inoculation, the answer is obvious—that either