On the cause of the rise of blood-pressure produced by digitalis / by T. Lauder Brunton and F.W. Tunnicliffe.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the cause of the rise of blood-pressure produced by digitalis / by T. Lauder Brunton and F.W. Tunnicliffe. 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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    PRODUCED BY DIGITALIS. By T. LAUDER BRUN- TON, M.D, F.R.S., and F. W. TUNNICLIFFE, M.D, M.R.C.P. (Five Figures in Text). Speaking generally two views are held with regard to the method in which the marked rise of arterial tension, which follows the administra- tion of digitalis, comes about. Some pharmacologists regard this as due entirely to the alteration in the activity of the heart, others hold that there occurs coincidently with this alteration in cardiac activity, a contraction of the arterioles, and that this latter phenomenon plays an important role in the rise of arterial tension. The first of these views has received most of its support from German pharmacologists, and especially from Prof. Schmiedeberg, who speaking of the action of digitalis in the last edition of his Arzneimittellehre1 states that if it exerts any contracting influence on the arterioles at all, this can only be of a transient nature. As we wish to examine this subject thoroughly before giving our own method of attacking the problem and its results, we think it will be profitable to summarily review the researches bearing upon this question. Blake2, working at the suggestion of Sharpey with the bsemody- namometer, found that the injection of an infusion made from 31, i.e. four grammes of the leaves, into the jugular vein of a dog caused the pressure in the femoral artery to rise from 5—8 inches. The intro- duction of larger quantities, into the carotid artery in a direction away from the heart produced a rise of blood-pressure of from 9—7 inches and this before the heart’s action was affected. This latter was however in all probability not a pure result. Blake further noticed that after digitalis had been given the arterial pressure fell very slowly after the cessation of the cardiac beats, it in one case remaining 2^ inches above the abscissa one minute after the stoppage of the heart. Traube3, in his later works4, was fully aware that digitalis 1 Leipzig, 1895, p. 170. 2 Edinburgh Med. Journal, li. 330. 1839.