Physiology and pathology of the sympathetic system of nerves / by A. Eulenburg and P. Guttmann ; translated by A. Napier.

  • Eulenburg, Albert, 1840-1917.
Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiology and pathology of the sympathetic system of nerves / by A. Eulenburg and P. Guttmann ; translated by A. Napier. 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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    that the difference between the two ears is maintained for weeks, or even for an indefinite period. Schiff, on the other hand, observes that it is only when the animals operated upon (dogs, cats, and rabbits) are kept quietly in stalls that the increase of temperature (5-9°C.) and dilatation of the vessels are maintained in the ear experimented upon; if the animals are allowed to run about in the open air, and the ears examined when they return heated from their play, breathing quickly, and with the general temperature elevated, the previously warmer ear of the injured side is found to be 1-5°C colder than the other, and its vessels less full. When the animal has rested some time, the former relations of temperature return. The experiments with this end in view, made by us on rabbits, were also at the same time directed to some other points; they proved, in general, that the rise in the temperature of the ear after extirpation of the sympathetic nerve, even when the animals are kept enclosed and at rest, is not maintained indefinitely. Rather the difference between the two ears, which might at first amount even to 11° or 12°C., became gradually less. In some cases there was not only equality established, but the temperature on the side operated on even sank somewhat below that of the other side, and maintained itself for some time, with certainly not unimportant fluctuations, in this relative position. In one rabbit the flushed and hot condition was passing off only on the eighth day—in another on the second, and more clearly on the following days. Thus the points that presented themselves most prominently for observation were certain relatively small differences between the two sides. If the animals were strongly irritated—as by keeping the mouth and nose closed till dyspnoeal muscular contractions were brought on, or if, by other means, strong movements were produced—not only the temperature on both sides rose, but, by a further rise in the temperature of the ear operated on, the difference between the two sides was generally increased, rarely somewhat diminished; in the same way, when occa- sionally the temperature was already high on the side not operated on, the existing difference was usually a little in- creased by the irritation, rarely influenced in the opposite way. Analogous results were obtained by us in a series of ex- periments on rabbits, in which the cervical sympathetic of one side was extirpated, and the carotid artery of the other side ligatured. Here, also, the temperature on the side on