A class experiment on ganglion block in human subjects / by W.D.M. Paton and Hannah Steinberg.

  • Paton, William D. M.
Date:
[1956?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A class experiment on ganglion block in human subjects / by W.D.M. Paton and Hannah Steinberg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    to the pupil to enable the diameter of the pupil and that of the semicircles to be compared (Fig. 1). Sweat Secretion.—The difficulty in measuring sweat secre¬ tion was that there was a steady diminution in sweating rate during the progress of the experiment. With methods such as the starch and iodine procedure it was usually found that no worth-while record of sweating was obtained after the first few periods of observation. The method devised by Sutarman and Thomson (1952), in which a plastic imprint was taken of the sweat glands, proved somewhat more satisfactory. This allows one to see the number of sweat ducts open and their size, but it is difficult to quanti¬ tate. Three records obtained by this technique from one subject are shown in Fig. 2. For the purpose of analysis these results have been regarded as qualitative. Fig. 2.—Sweat prints taken from one subject by the method of Sutarman and Thomson (1952). A: Before injection. B: Forty minutes after 25 mg. of hexamethonium. C: Sixty minutes after hexamethonium, when sweating had returned. Openings of sweat ducts are the circular clear spaces on the skin ridges. Plan of Experiment The students worked in groups of four, with one student as subject and the remaining three as observers dividing the various duties among themselves. A set of observations was made every twenty minutes, timed with a stop-clock, in the following order : supine blood pressure and pulse rate ; standing blood pressure and pulse rate ; skin temperature, body temperature, and room temperature ; salivary secretion and sweating rate ; ocular accommodation and reaction to light. This sequence was strictly followed, so that the interval between successive particular types of observation was kept constant. Two sets of control observations were made before injection of the drug, the subject having been instructed to take a light lunch, not to drink too much, and to empty his bladder, since he would be confined to his couch for about three hours. Immediately after the second set of control observations, 25 mg. of hexamethonium bromide was injected subcutaneously into the deltoid area