Abstract
Acute cocaine poisoning in the rabbit causes significant respiratory derangements in such a way as to lead to death of the animal. Since artificial respiration constitutes a very satisfactory method of treatment in this animal and since Richet 1 and Feinberg 2 found independently that decortication as well as decerebration raised the minimal lethal dosage of cocaine, it was thought that possibly other parts of the nervous system might contribute to the harmful effects of cocaine. This report, therefore, involves a study of the possibility of vagus involvement.
Rabbits were anesthetized with ether, double vagotomy and tracheotomy performed. After recovery from the anesthetic the animals were poisoned by subcutaneous injections of cocaine hydrochloride. It was found that this procedure raised the average minimal fatal dose from 100 to 125 mg. per kilogram in the intact animal to approximately 175 mg. per kilogram in the operated animal. Tracheotomy alone was sufficient to be equally efficacious, whereas vagotomy alone was without effect in modifying the average minimal fatal dose.
These facts are interpreted to mean that in the intact rabbit, respiratory embarrassment must exist, either through spasm of the glottis or other obstruction, in such a way that the asphyxial element thereby induced very markedly contributed to the central injury produced by cocaine.
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