[ 547 ] 

 LXXXI. Proceedings of Learned Societies. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 311 •.] 



Jan. 28,'T'HE reading of a paper entitled, " On the action of certain 



1841 . A Inorganic Compounds when introduced directlj- into the 



Blood." ByJamesBlake, Esq., M.R.C.S. Communicated by P. M. 



Roget, M.D., Sec. R.S., was resumed and concluded. 



The present paper is a continuation of a memoir read at the Aca- 

 demic des Sciences of -Paris, in 1839, and entitled, " Effets de di- 

 verses substances salines, injectees dans le systeme circulatoire f- 



After some preliminary remarks on the mode in which the ex- 

 periments were conducted, and on the assistance derived from the 

 hamadynamometer of Poiseuille (or instrument for measuring the 

 pressure of the blood circulating in the vessels), the author gfves a 

 list of the various saline substances of which he noted the effects 

 when they were severally injected either into the venous or the 

 arterial sj^stems, arranged according to the nature of those effects. 

 He finds, in general, that all the salts hanng the same base exert 

 similar actions when introduced directly into the blood. He 

 carefully inquires into the phsenomena apparently arising from the 

 direct contact of each of the substances above enumerated with the 

 animal tissues ; and more particularly into the effects produced on 

 the heart, on the muscular and the nervous tissues, and on the pul- 

 monary and systemic capillaries. 



The first series of experiments related are those on the action of 

 the salts of magnesia : these are found, when introduced in any 

 quantities into the blood, to arrest altogether the acrion of the heart ; 

 but a still more remarkable effect which results, is the complete pro- 

 stration of muscular power. The salts of zinc have a similar opera- 

 tion under the same circumstances, but produce the same effects in 

 smaller quantities. The action of the salts of copper, of lime, of 

 strontia, of baryta, and of lead, are considered successively in the 

 order in which they are more closely related by their physiological 

 actions. The author particularly notices the peculiar action wliich 

 the salts of the three last-named substances exercise on the muscular 

 tissues, occasioning contractions in them during many minutes after 

 death produced by their introduction into the blood. These mus- 

 cular movements were, in some cases, observed forty-five minutes 

 after the cessation of the heart's action. Experiments with the salts 

 of silver and of soda are then detailed ; substances, which exhibit a 

 remarkable similarity in their actions on the pulmonary tissue, on 

 the heart, and on the systemic capillaries : for while, in the case of 

 all the other salts already mentioned, death seems to be produced 

 by the destruction of the irritability of the heart, the fatal result 

 with the salts of silver and of soda is the consequence of their action 

 on the tissue of the lungs. The physiological actions of the salts of 

 [* Two notices of communications made to the Royal Societv, accident- 

 ally omitted from their proper place, will be found wi'th the Miscellaneous 

 Articles in the present Number.] 

 t Published in the "Archives Ge'ne'rales de Medecine; Nov. 1839 " 

 2N2 



