“On the tetanic element in bile,” with demonstrations

Abstract

The toxic effects of bile are manifold, and have been the subject of numerous investigations. The authors referred only to the general effects: coma and convulsions. Of the early investigators of the effects of injection of bile into animals, some observed only coma, others convulsions, and still others stated that they observed both. The last work on this subject, the work which is now frequently quoted, was done by Rywosch about fourteen years ago. Rywosch claims that coma is the only effect of the two which the injection of bile or bile salts produces.

In their extensive series of experiments on frogs the authors established the fact that the injection of bile can produce coma as well as tetanus. Coma is the frequent and the more reliable result. By a certain device, however, they were able to demonstrate the presence of the tetanic element even in bile which infallibly produced coma; it was by the addition of a subminimum dose of strychnin. A frog of medium size will not respond, even with the slightest hyperesthesia, to an injection of a hundredth of a milligram of strychnin. When such a small dose, however, is injected into a frog which has received a certain quantity of bile, the animal reacts, sooner or later, with a distinct tetanus. The effective dose of bile varies with the animal from which it is obtained. For instance, of ox bile hardly more than 0.3 c.c. need be used, otherwise the coma will completely mask the tetanic element. Rabbit's bile, on the other hand, may be given sometimes even in doses of 2 c.c. or 3 c.c., without supressing any of the tetanic features. The setting in of complete coma usually masks the tetanic element, as already stated. A close observation, however, will reveal in many cases some distinct differences between the coma of animals which received a subminimum dose of strychnin and that of animals which had not received any strychnin.