ANTAGONISTIC EFFECT OF ASPHYXIA TO CURARE PARALYSIS OF THE VAGUS NERVE

The induction of asphyxia restores excitability to the vagus nerve paralysed by curare. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of experiments designed to investigate this phenomenon. MATERIAL AND METHODS The experiments were performed on dogs (8 to 15 kg.) anesthetized by morphine sul-fate (10 mgm. per kg. subcutaneously) followed 30 minutes later by urethane given by stomach tube (1 gm. per kg.). In a few instances cats or rabbits were used. In all ex-periments tracheotomy was performed and a T-cannula introduced before the various blood vessels were prepared. This allowed the immediate starting of artificial respira-tion. In most experiments the right vagus nerve was then isolated and severed. The left vagus nerve was treated similarly, but the peripheral end was bound on two curved electrodes. The exposed nerves were covered with gauze soaked in Ringer’s solution. The stimulation of the nerve was accomplished by means of a Harvard inductorium and a dry cell of 1.5 volts. The secondary was usually placed at number 6 of the scale. Three different samples of curare were tried, all supplied by Merck and Co