DAVID CERNA-PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTIONS OF SPARTEINE. 
51 
ON THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM. 
There appears to be produced, under the influence of sparteine, espe¬ 
cially when administered in minute doses, a brief period of increased 
muscular irritability, which, however, soon disappears; but I have never 
been able to note any marked depression of normal irritability of the 
muscles even under massive quantities of the drug. Yet, according to 
Fig. C. 
r 
Tracing II. —The same, 25. minutes afterwards. At this point a second injec¬ 
tion of 0.03 gramme was given. 
the observations of Griffe, Gluzinski, and De Rymon, it appears that, 
locally applied, sparteine diminishes to a certain extent, the excitability 
of the muscular fiber, whereby the duration of the latent period of con¬ 
traction is prolonged. The results obtained in my studies with the use 
of the myograph are sufficiently clear, and do not seem to fully sustain 
the statement of the investigators just mentioned. I will detail one ex¬ 
periment out of many similar ones performed. 
