78 



Dr. E. Staehelin. On the Part played by [Dec. 11, 



" On the Part played by Benzene in Poisoning by Coal Gas." By 

 E. Staehelin, M.D., Senior .Assistant in the Medical Clinic at 

 Basle. Communicated by Professor E. H. Starling, F.E.S. 

 Eeceived December 11, 1903,— Eead January 28, 1904. 



(From the Physiological Laboratory, University College.) 



In a recent paper Vahlen* has maintained that a difference exists 

 between the poisonous action of coal gas and of carbon monoxide, 

 .and Kunkelf has also drawn attention to a similar difference in the 

 case of frogs. In the course of a research which I was undertaking 

 in University College for other purposes, at the suggestion of Professor 

 Starling, I have come across facts which may serve to explain the 

 difference noted by these observers. 



My first object was to investigate the effect of deprivation of oxygen 

 on the fatigue curve of muscles. To this end, a muscle was hung up 

 in a closed chamber and the atmospheric air driven out by a stream of 

 some other gas. When coal gas was used for this purpose, it was 

 noticed that the muscle rapidly went into rigor mortis, whereas, in 

 nitrogen, it remained excitable for many hours. I set myself, there- 

 fore, to find out which constituent of the coal gas was responsible for 

 this poisonous effect. 



The experiments were carried out on the frog's sartorius, since the 

 relatively large surface of this muscle renders it particularly accessible 

 to gaseous poisons. The muscle was hung up in a glass tube, closed 

 above and below by rubber corks. To the upper cork a hook was 

 fastened on which was hung the bony insertion of the sartorius. 

 Through the lower cork a glass tube passed. The movements of the 

 muscle were transmitted to a recording lever by means of a steel 

 needle hooked into the lower end of the muscle and passing through 

 the glass tube. The lever was weighted near its axle, and was after- 

 loaded, and its movements were recorded on a slowly rotating drum, 

 on which the time was also marked by means of a signal. The closed 

 tube was provided with two small lateral openings by which any gas 

 desired could be passed through it, the opening through which the 

 needle passed to the lever being made sufficiently air-tight by means 

 of a small plug of vaseline. In every experiment two similar 



# Ferchland und Vablen, " Ueber Yerschiedenheit yon Leuchtgas- und Kohlen- 

 oxydvergiftung," ' Archiv fiir exper. Pathologie und Pharmakologie,' 48, p. 106 ; 

 Vahlen, " Ueber Leuchtgasvergiftung," ' Archiv fur experimentelle Pathologie 

 und Pharmakologie,' 49, p. 245. 



f Kunkel, " Ueber VerschiedenheitjTon Leuchtgas- und Kohlenoxydvergiftung," 

 ' Sitzungsberichte der Physikaliech-niedizinischen Gresellschaft zu Wurzburg,' 

 1902, Nr. 4, 5, p. 61. 



