IVRI 2318.pdf

INTRAPERICARDIAL MEDICATION AND MASSAGE 39
Experiment 4, Figure 3. This experiment was made to determine
whether adrenine acts on the heart when introduced iuto
the pericardial sac.
The heart-rate before injection was 39 per ten seconds. Pilocarpine
nitrate (0.4 cc. of a one per cent solution) was injected
intravenously (fig. 3 a). In half a minute this had reduced the
heart-rate to 15 per ten seconds, and adrenine (1 cc. of a 1 in
2000 solution) was injected into the pericardial sac (b). In
thirty seconds the heart-rat'e had increased to 22 (0), and in two
minutes to 37, Cd), per ten seconds.
Adrenine here produced a definite acceleration of the heart
when applied to its external surface. The fact that the bloodpressure
rose to above the normal suggests that some adrenine
may have been absorbed into the general circulation, though it
may on the other hand have been due to an augmentor action
on the heart itself.
Experiment 5, Figure 4. This experiment was performed on
a cat, the conditions of experiment being the same as in previous
experiments. In the more slowly beating heart of the cat, it is
easy to show the accelerating action of adrenine without previous
use of pilocarpine.
For five minutes before injection the heart-rate had remained
regularly 23 or 24 per ten seconds. Adrenine (1 cc. of a 1 in
10,000 solution) was injected into the pericardial sac. In thirty
seconds this increased the heart-rate to 32 per ten seconds (fig.
4). The effect of adrenine in this experiment is clearly due to
a local action on the heart, the acceleration being very considerable
but the rise of blood-pressure only very slight.
These and other experiments have furnished sufficient grounds
for believing that at all events atropine, pilocarpine and adrenine
can exert their actions on the heart when introduced into
the pericardial sac. In regard to the present inquiry adrenine
was the most interesting; one of us has in recent years conducted
a series of experiments to determine which is the most powerful
cardiac stimulant from the point of view of its value in starting
an arrested heart; and, of those drugs which have been ttied,
adrenine has proved unquestionably the best. Thus it has been