No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 January 2013
In 1855, the Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Edinburgh, in a paper read before this Society, directed the attention of physiologists to some of the remarkable properties of the Calabar bean. In 1862, I presented a graduation thesis to the University of Edinburgh on the “Characters, Actions and Therapeutic Uses of the Ordeal Bean of Calabar.” The principal results I had obtained at that time were that this substance causes death by either syncope or asphyxia, the latter being due to an effect on the spinal cord and on the respiratory centres; that the symptoms resemble those of cardiac or pulmonary embarrassment, according to the quantity of the poison administered, and to its rate of absorption; and, also, that the topical application of this agent to the eyeball, or to its neighbourhood, produces a marked and rapid contraction of the pupil and various disturbances of vision. Since then, and more especially because of the peculiarity of the last of these conclusions, a lively interest has been taken in this substance. Its actions on the eye have been investigated by nearly all the leading ophthalmologists of Europe and of America, and its general physiology has occupied the attention of many distinguished students of biology. Nor have these labours been barren of practical results. Ophthalmic medicine has adopted this agent as one of its important remedies, and there can be little doubt that general medical practice will soon include in its Pharmacopœia a drug of so great energy.
page 715 note * Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. iii. p. 280Google Scholar; and Monthly Medical Journal, vol. xx., 1855.Google Scholar
page 715 note † Edinburgh Medical Journal, 1863, and pamphlet.Google ScholarPubMed
page 715 note ‡ Since this sentence was written the Physodigmatis Faba has been admitted into the edition of the “British Pharmacopœia,” published in 1867.
page 716 note * On the Moth of the Esere, or Ordeal Bean of Old Calabar. The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, May 1864, pp. 389–393.Google ScholarPubMed
page 716 note † The varying potency of an extract possessing the property of absorbing moisture may unfit it for therapeutic purposes, but the tincture I have already recommended (op. cit. sect, iii.) will prove a sufficient substitute, and it has the great advantage of constancy of strength.
page 717 note * Cyclopædia of Anatomy, article “Stomach;” Lancet, 1853, vol. ii. p. 599Google Scholar; and Lectures on the Diseases of the Stomach, 2d edit., 1864, p. 54.Google Scholar
page 717 note † Guy's Hospital Reports, vol. vi. p. 397.Google Scholar
page 718 note * Op. cit. sect. ii.
page 723 note * Nunneley on the Calabar Bean, &c. Lancet, 1863, p. 23, and Pamphlet.
page 723 note † Leçons sur les Effets des Substances Toxiques et Médicamenteuses, 1857, p. 268.Google Scholar
page 723 note ‡ Action comparée de l'éxtrait de Noix Vomique et du Curare sur l'économie animale. Journal de la Physiologie de l'Homme et des Animaux, tome troisième p. 327, &c.
page 724 note * It appears somewhat startling to assert that complicated movements, of an apparently voluntary character, may continue in frogs after the removal of the brain. I first observed this in an experiment in which the spinal cord had been divided at the base of the skull; and, in describing the condition of the frog in which it was seen, I added a qualifying note ascribing the circumstance to incomplete division of the medulla. Since then, I have occasionally observed the same phenomenon; and the present experiment is conclusive in showing that some of those functions which we are in the habit of ascribing to the cerebral lobes alone, are, in frogs at any rate, shared in by the spinal cord.
May 1867.—Dr Norris enters into this anomaly, and confirms its occurrence, in his admirable paper on Muscular Irritability, in the “Journal of Anatomy and Physiology,” No. 2, p. 221, et seq. He also refers to Lewes (Physiology of Common Life, vol ii.) as having first prominently announced this curious exception to the generally received views on nerve physiology.
page 727 note * Journal de l'Anatomie et de la Physiologie, 1864, p. 141Google Scholar, et seq.; and British Medical Journal, Sept. 3, 1863.Google Scholar
page 730 note * Leçons sur les Sub. Tox. &c., 1857, pp. 238–413.Google Scholar
page 730 note † Verh. d. phys.-med. Ges. zu Würzburg, 1859, vol. ix., part 2, p. 55Google Scholar, et seq.; Virchow's, Archiv, x., p. 235Google Scholar; and other papers.
page 730 note ‡ Berliner Klin. Wochenschr., No. 5–6, 1866. Quoted in Rutherford's Report on Physiology; Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, No. 1, 1866, p. 155.Google ScholarPubMed
page 731 note * In Experiments XXIX. and XXX. I have thankfully to acknowledge the valuable assistance I obtained from Dr Rutherford.
page 731 note † Loc. cit., p. 312.
page 731 note ‡ Ibid.
page 732 note * Such contraction has been directly demonstrated by LISTER and others after division of the sciatic nerve. See “An Inquiry regarding the parts of the Nervous System which regulate the contraction of the Arteries;” Philosophical Transactions, 1858, vol. cxlviii., p. 607.Google Scholar
page 734 note * Virchow's Archiv. Februar, 1866.
page 734 note † Op. cit. sect. v. experiment viii.
page 735 note * A. von Bezold; Monats Bericht der Berlin: Akad. 1859.
page 736 note * This method of examining reflex activity seems to have been first recommended by Von Türck in 1850 (Ueber den Zustand der Sensibilität nach theilweiser Trennung des Rückenmarks); and its value has been brought more prominently into notice by Dr J. Setschenow (Physiologische Studien über die Hemmungs-mechanismen für die Reflexthätigkeit des Rückenmarks im Gehirne des Frosches, Berlin, 1863).
page 739 note * In all these experiments, the parts which had been dipped in the acid solution were immediately washed with distilled water. The destructive action of the acid was thereby reduced to a minimum.
page 740 note * Marshall Hall, Brown-Séquard, Bonnefin, Martin-Magron and Buisson maintain that strychnia causes tetanus by an action on the spinal cord; Claude Bernard and Stannius are the principal champions of the opposing theory of its action on the sensory nerves.
page 741 note * Rev.Haughton, Samuel, Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, August 1862.Google Scholar
page 741 note † Woakes, E., British Medical Journal, October 1860, &c.Google Scholar
page 741 note ‡ Harley, , Lancet, 1856Google Scholar; Vella, L., Comptes Rendus, 1860Google Scholar; Claude Bernard (opposes the view of counteraction), Leçons, &c., p. 377.
page 741 note § Graves, Clinical Lectures on the Practice of Medicine; Anderson, , Effects of Belladona in Poisoning by Opium, 1854Google Scholar; Lopez, , American Medico-Chirurgical Review, vol. iv. 1859Google Scholar; DrNorris, W. F., American Journal of Medical Science, Oct. 1862Google Scholar; Camus (experimentally disproves this asserted antagonism), Gazette Hebdr., 11 Août 1865, and Canstatt's Jahresbcricht, &c., Fünfter Band, 1866, p. 123.
page 741 note ║ It has been found that frogs, after fatal doses of strychnia, may die without any convulsions, if care be taken to protect them from all causes of excitation—Marshall Hall, Aperçu du Système Spinal, p. 170; Claude Bernard, Lectures on Experimental Pathology and Operative Physiology, Medical Times and Gazette, 1860, v. ii., p. 25.Google Scholar
page 741 note ¶ Berliner klin. Wochschr, 38, 1864.Google Scholar
page 743 note * Op. cit. section v. experiment iii.
page 748 note * Kölliker, Vulpian, Claude Bernard and others, in various papers.
page 748 note † Pélikan, M. Eug. et DrDybkowski, ; Recherches physiologo-toxicologiques sur l'action de quelques poisons du cœur; and Comptes Rendus, 1865, p. 1209.Google Scholar
page 748 note ‡ Ibid.
page 748 note § Ibid.
page 748 note ║ Ibid.
page 748 note ¶ On the Application of Physiological Tests for Certain Organic Poisons, and especially Digitaline, by Fagge, C. Hilton, M.D., and Stevenson, Thomas, M.D.CrossRefGoogle ScholarGuy's Hospital Reports, 3d series, 1866, vol. xii. p. 47.Google Scholar
page 748 note ** Nouvelles Recherches sur le poison du Nerium Oleander. Note de M. Eug. Pélikan. Comptes Rendus, 1866, p. 237.
page 751 note * Claude Bernard, Leçons sur les effects des Subs. Tox. &c., p. 352; Kölliker, loc. cit.; Martin-Magron, , Journal de la Physiologie, 1859, p. 649, &c.Google Scholar
page 752 note * Dr Power observes, in the sixth edition of Carpenter's “Principles of Human Physiology” (page 217, note), that “the esseutial cause of the rhythmical action of the heart must still remain an unsolved question.” The exact influence of the various nerves that connect the heart with the central nervous systems, appears to be quite as imperfectly ascertained, judging by the contradictory statements and deductions of eminent physiologists. Legallois and Philip Wilson,and, afterwards, Budge, Schiff, Reid, Weber, Moleschott, Von Bezold and others, have shown that a connection certainly exists; but they have left the details of the question unsettled by the great differences in many of their opinions, as, for example, on the cardiac functions of the vagi. Von Bezold, in 1863, attempted to prove the existence, in the spinal cord, of an excito-motory centre, whose stimulation increases not only the number of the beats, but also the blood-pressure—the latter being due to augmented force in the heart's contractions. Ludwig and Thiry opposed this opinion, and asserted that the increased blood-tension is really an effect of excitation of the vaso-motor nerves. In a recent investigation (Comptes Rendus, 25 Mars 1867), MM E. and M. Cyon give their adherence to the views of Ludwig and Thiry. They also attempt to show that the spinal cord, through the sympathetic system, supplies the heart with nerves that possess the power of directly accelerating its contractions, and that are antagonistic to the vagi, in that, while the latter diminish the frequency and increase the force of the contractions, the spinal “nerfs accélérateurs,” on the other hand, increase the frequency and diminish the force.—April 1867.
page 755 note * Pélikan, op. cit., Comptes Rendus, 1866.
page 756 note * I have much pleasure in acknowledging the valuable assistance I derived in this series of experiments from my friend, Dr Gamgee. I am also indebted, for essential aid in all or several of them, to Dr Brunton, and to Messrs Paton, Ritchie, Finlay, Caton, Hogg, Holden, Wright, Hardie, Gairdner, Glascott, Lucas, M'Ewan, Howieson, Crombie and Young. Without the co-operation of these gentlemen, it would have been quite impossible to obtain the many simultaneous observations which are contained in these experiments, and to which much of their value is due.
page 765 note * On the State of the Blood and Blood-Vessels in Inflammation, &c. Guy's Hospital Reports, 1851.
page 765 note † Principles and Practice of Medicine.
page 765 note ‡ Philosophical Transactions, 1858.
page 765 note § Bernard, Claude, Leçons, &c., 1857, p. 399.Google Scholar
page 766 note * Nachet's eye-piece No. 1, and object-glass No. 3, were employed; and the measurements represent divisions of an eye-piece micrometer, each of which equals 
of an inch with the above glasses.
page 768 note * It will be observed that the temperature has gradually fallen in this experiment before the poison was administered, and apparently because of the constrained position in which it was necessary to retain the rabbit. In other nine experiments of the same description, a similar fall occurred. I endeavoured to find if a stationary, constant point could be obtained, after which the poison might be given; with the following result:—When the thermometer was introduced, the temperature was 97°; in one hour, it had fallen to 96°·3; in two hours, to 95°·6; in three hours, to 95°·3; in four hours, to 94°·7; in five hours, to 93°·3; and in six hours, to 92°. The rabbit was now set free: it was unable to stand: and other four hours afterwards, it was found dead. As this is a very ordinary method of treating rabbits during physiological experiments, it is important to recognise this injury to their vitality, which may occasion many fallacious conclusions if overlooked.
page 769 note * On the Influence of Physical and Chemical Agents upon Blood; with special reference to the mutual action of the Blood and the Respiratory Gases. Phil. Trans. 1865, p. 687.Google ScholarPubMed
page 769 note † Action de l'Oxyde de Carbon sur le Sang, Leçons, &c., 1857, p. 166.Google Scholar
page 770 note * Philosophical Transactions, 1833, p. 559.Google ScholarPubMed
page 770 note † Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, vol. ix. p. 559.Google Scholar
page 773 note * Op. cit. p. 140.
page 773 note † Recherches sur la Fève du Calabar, 1865, p. 22, &c.Google Scholar
page 773 note ‡ Op. cit. p. 12.
page 773 note § Op. cit. p. 300.
page 773 note ║ Mentioned by Donders (Accommodation and Refraction of the Eye: New Sydenham Society, 1864) as having been observed in 1856; and, I am informed by Professor Donders, communicated to a scientific society, but not otherwise published by Van Hasselt.
page 778 note * In this and in the other experiments of the series, a drop of water was occasionally placed on the heart to prevent its surface from drying.
page 779 note * On the State of the Blood-Vessels in Inflammation, &c.; loc. cit.
page 779 note † An Inquiry regarding the parts of the Nervous System which regulate the Contraction of the Arteries; Philosophical Transactions, vol. cxlviii., 1858.Google Scholar
page 781 note * On the Cutaneous Pigmentary System of the Frog; Philosophical Transactions, vol. cxlviii., 1858, p. 627.Google Scholar
page 783 note * Centralblatt, No. 36, 1866; and Rutherford's Report on Physiology, Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, No. II., 1867.Google ScholarPubMed