DAVID CERNA-PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTIONS OF SPARTEINE. 
57 
slowing of the heart. Under large amounts he noticed a slow pulse from 
the beginning. The same author likewise observed a decided persist¬ 
ence of cardiac contractions. In mammals, Griffe noticed a primary 
stimulation of the pulse, under small doses of sparteine, without altera¬ 
tion of the arterial pressure. With larger quantities the acceleration of 
Fig. J. 
Tracing II.—The same, with 10 seconds’ pause. 
the cardiac-rate was followed by a diminution. Toxic amounts, he 
found, produced at first a slow pulse accompanied with lowering of the 
arterial pressure, the size of the pulse-waves, however, continuing to be 
large and full. The author states that the peripheral vagi become finally 
paralj'zed. 
Somewhat similar results were obtained by Massius* * * § , Garandt, and 
FickJ. The latter author also states that muscarine has little or no effect 
upon the sparteine-heart, concluding that the drug under consideration 
Fig. K. 
Tracing II.—The same without interruption. 
paralyzes the inhibitory centers in the cardiac organ. On the other hand, 
Gluzinski§ points out three stages as resulting from the influence of spar¬ 
teine upon the mammalian heart. He noticed, in the first place, a slow¬ 
ing of the heart’s action, and this he ascribes to pneumogastric stimula¬ 
tion. Again, he observed a short period of slowness in the cardiac 
pulsations, and sometimes a primary increased pulse-rate, a phenomenon 
which, according to him, is dependent upon paralysis of the inhibitory 
ganglia in the heart and of the pneumo-gastric centers. In a third series 
of instances, the results were those of slowing the heart’s action due prin¬ 
cipally to the direct influence of sparteine on the cardiac muscle. Though 
apparently so, these results of Gluzinski are not discordant with those of 
the other investigators just quoted, and in this regard I concur in the 
well-founded opinion of Wood|| to the effect that “ it is evident that if 
* Bull. Acad. Royal Med. Belgique , p. 218, Yol. I. 
f Loc. Citat. 
%Loc. Citat. 
§ Vratch, No. 3, 1887; also Med. and Surgical Reporter , July, 1887. 
II Loc. Citat. 
