Abstract
In work recently reported from these laboratories, 1 it was found that the injection of glucose in normal-fed rabbits did not materially shorten the period of depression of nembutal anaesthesia. Fasting for 20 hours increased the duration of the anaesthesia appreciably. There was no correlation between the susceptibility to the drug and the blood sugar levels, either before the administration of the drug or at the time of greatest depression. Although the sugar level was not changed at the time of maximum depression there was a very definite drop in this level at the time of recovery.
Since the drop in the blood sugar level at the time of recovery from nembutal anaesthesia was shown only for normal-fed animals, the question arose as to the reaction of starved animals under the same conditions. It was also necessary to make a more complete study of the changes in the blood sugar level throughout the entire experimental period. The work presented in this paper is an extension of the previous work along these lines.
Recovery sugars were done on both normal-fed and starved rabbits. Blood samples were taken at the time of deepest depression and upon complete recovery. The sugar values were determined by the Somogyi Micro Method.
2
Table I again shows the fall in the blood sugar level at the time of recovery for the normal-fed animals. With the starved group the fall obtained was less but since the difference between the initial and final values is more than 3 times the deviation of the difference,
its significance is statistically indicated.
In order to ascertain the level of the blood sugar throughout the experimental period, the time curve was made on normal-fed and on starved rabbits. Samples of blood were taken before the injection and at hourly intervals for 6 hours after the injection.
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