The physiological actions of dajaksch, an arrow poison used in Borneo / by Peter M. Braidwood, M.D.

  • Braidwood, Peter Murray.
Date:
1864
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiological actions of dajaksch, an arrow poison used in Borneo / by Peter M. Braidwood, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    which Increase in intensity from time to time. By degrees, para- lysis, sX first of sensation, and then of motion, sets in. The onset of the paralysis is in some instances not very marked, and in no case did the general paralysis seem to be an effect of the action of the poison. This paralytic stage shortly precedes death, and sets in from half an hour to an hour after the cessation of the heart's con- tractions. Lastly, the respiration is noticed to become heaving and irregular; sometimes the respiratory movements are spasmodic, gasp- ing, and occurring at long intervals. In the case of warm-blooded ' animals, vomiting and the passage of fajces and urine are noticeable symptoms, which present themselves soon after the exhibition of the poison, and continue to a greater or less extent till general paralysis takes place. Specific Action of Dajahsch on the Pupil and on the Heart.—On the application of a couple of drops of a diluted watery solution of Dajaksch mixed with glycerine, between the eyelids, in the case of the lower animals the iris was found to contract. But this effect was not nearly so marked as that noticeable on the use of the Calabar bean; and therefore it is only incidentally noticed here. In those cases in which death resulted from the use of the poison, the contraction of the pupil was iirst observable at the commence- ment of the convulsive stage, and lasted till general paralysis set in, when the pupil began again to dilate. Though this poison produced contraction of the pupil in the lower animals, it is not to be con- cluded that it has the same effect on the pupil of man; for it has been repeatedly found that poisons which, to a marked extent, contract the pupil in the lower animals, do not act on the human subject. The Complete Cessation of Cardiac Action is, however, the char- acteristic effect of dajaksch on the animal organism. In the course of a short time (varying according to the amount and strength of the solution used), after the subcutaneous administration of the poison, the heart's pulsations are found to become feeble. Shortly thereafter the heart contracts irregularly and peristaltically. The irregular pulsations consist in the auricles contracting twice as often as the ventricles,—once witb the ventricles, and once during the inter- mediate pause.^ By degrees the ventricles cease to contract, and ex- hibit only a slight heaving movement of their walls, by the blood passing through them; and at last they become simultaneously motion- less. Some time thei-eafter (about half an hour when the dose is small), the auricles are observed to pulsate more and more slowly and feebly, and at last they also become motionless. General motion and sensation are as yet unimpaired; so that, if the experiment be made on a frog, and it be at this stage released from its fastenings, it jumps about briskly with an immovable heart. No portion of ' These irregular and peristaltic contractions of the ventricles are best observed in the frog. In these animals the ventricle can be distinctly seen to contract peristaltically (like the intestines) from the apex to the base.