Further observations and experiments regarding the true nature of tetanus / by Sydney Ringer and William Murrell.

  • Ringer, Sydney, 1835-1910.
Date:
[1877?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Further observations and experiments regarding the true nature of tetanus / by Sydney Ringer and William Murrell. 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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    force displayed after stimulation was far less marked tlian tliat occurring in a normal co-ordinated reflex act. We again Lad weak tetanus excited in a weak and dying cord. These experi- ments we several times repeated. Now we venture to maintain that it is impossible to explain this tetanus otherwise than on the supposition of a resistive force, which the strychnia weakened or destroyed. It certainly cannot be explained on the supposition that strychnia simply produces increased excitability of the cord. We are not now denying that strychnia may “excite” or “stimulate” the cord, hut admitting this, the tetanus we have just described cannot be due merely to this increased excitability; for were this so, the strychnia should have first improved, then completely restored normal co-ordinated reflex action, and then, on the cord becoming still more “ stimulated,” tetanus ought to have supervened. It may be objected that with brainless frogs in a few hours or in two or three days the afferent and efferent nerves be- come depressed as well as the spinal cord; and hence, though strychnia may restore the lost functional activity to the cord, yet as the impression conveyed thereto is weakened, and the conductivity of the motor nerves is also depressed, the tetanus itself ought to be very weak. We therefore devised the fol- lowing experiment:—We pithed and pegged a frog, and after fling the femoral vessels of the right leg close to the trunk, we injected into the abdominal cavity a mixture containing one gram of extract of Calabar bean, and tJL grain of strychnia! Ihc Calabar bean we used to depress the cord, and as we wished to induce depression of the cord without effecting any alteration in the afferent or efferent nerves, we tied the vessels ot the right leg, thus protecting the tissues below the ligature from the effect of the drug. In twelve minutes slight tetanus set m the legs on strong mechanical irritation being power- ,7 , out once' and onoe 0llly. after each stimulation Co- ouhnatcd and tetanic reflex action persisted simultaneouslv • that is, a weak stimulus excited co-ordinated action ' a cl oX' M X10 eXteDsi0n of tlle jx»t described, ihe o O dmated reflex action grew weaker and weaker, the tetanus at fust remaining undiminished, then it also declined, la X