THE ADRENALS IN DISEASE AND POISONING. 



49 



J. P. Arnold and H. C. Wood, Jr., upon dogs," writes Wood, 

 "the change from a slow to a rapid pulse has been abrupt and 

 usually accompanied by an enormous rise of the already ele- 

 vated blood-pressure. At the end, the fall of pressure is very 

 sudden and rapid, so that it has immediately preceded death." 

 . . . "It seems to be clearly established that in poisoning 

 of the mammal by digitalis the heart is arrested, not in sys- 

 tole, but in diastole." It also seems "very certain that the 

 proposition framed for the lower mammals applies also to 

 man." 



Ether is referred to in the following terms: "Our present 

 evidences show that there is, during ether anaesthesia, a rise 

 of pressure, which is, at least in part, the result of cardiac 

 action. . . . This rise is followed by a fall." . . . Hy- 

 drocyanic acid is probably the most violent suprarenal paral- 

 yzant; it was found by Preyer, Lecorche, and Meuriot to pro- 

 duce, in sufficient amount and concentration, instantaneous 

 diastolic arrest. In large, though not enormous, doses Preyer 

 and Laschkewitsch noted that "it first produced a sudden pro- 

 longed arrest of the heart, followed by an augmentation in 

 the rapidity of the cardiac action, and after this a diminution 

 of the rate: to the normal number in cases of recovery, to 

 cardiac standstill in cases of death." Small, non-toxic doses 

 simply slow the heart's action. 



Mercury, in the form of corrosive sublimate, also gives rise 

 to choleraic symptoms in toxic doses. "In the course of two 

 or three hours," says Wood, "very rarely in less than an hour, 

 collapse occurs, with small, frequent, irregular pulse." Opium 

 is referred to as follows: "In man the circulatory phenomena 

 are a slight primary evanescent acceleration of the pulse-rate 

 (Nothnagel 105 ), succeeded by the characteristic slowing and 

 increased fullness and force of the pulse, which is followed by 

 a return to the normal pulse or a great increase of the rapidity 

 and loss of strength during the third stage." Experimentally 

 it was found to cause arrest of the heart in diastole. Oxalic- 

 acid poisoning is also attended by a small, irregular pulse. 

 Phosphorus, in the very acute cases of poisoning, may be at- 



106 Nothnagel : "Handb. d. Arzeneimittellehre," 1870. 



