EFFECTS OF VARIOUS COLLOIDS AND OTHER AGENTS WHICH PRODUCE ANAPHYLACTOID PHENOMENA ON SURVIVING INTESTINE AND UTERUS

¹ From the Pharmacological Laboratory, School of Medicine, Western Reserve University, Cleveland

The main results may be stated as follows:

Agar produces no effects on or slight depression of the peristalsis of surviving intestine and uterus. The following agents uniformly depressed both the intestine and uterus; acacia, dextrin, glycogen, gelatin, starch, human and horse serums and nuclein solution (Abbott). Althea extract was variable, although though depression was the rule, no matter whether slightly acid, alkaline or neutral in reaction. The following agents produced moderate to marked stimulation of both uterine and intestinal penistalsis; peptone, congo red and rabbit's serum. Beef serum was irregular. So far as peptone and rabbit's serum are concerned the results obtained are confirmative of the usual effects, and these agents served as controls for the inactive agents, indicating that the organs were functionally active and responsive in the usual way when tested against well known augmentors of peristalsis. The results with congo red do not agree with those on surviving lungs in which inflation (bronchoconstriction) did not occur. However, this is immaterial to the results of this investigation.

So far as agar, acacia and the remaining non-protein colloids are concerned, the results confirm those obtained on surviving lungs. That is, these agents are not stimulants of plain muscle in the bronchi, uterus and intestine. On the contrary, they almost invariably depressed the intestinal and uterine muscle. This would be generally expected with colloids, that is, a limitation of physiological activity because of their peculiar physical chemical properties (lessened diffusion and dissociation of ions, adsorption, etc.) with effects on nutrition.

As far as acacia is concerned, my results are confirmative of a preliminary report by Kruse (4). Accordingly, the use of acacia intravenously can not be regarded without the possibilities of causing injury, or at least effects that are not necessarily beneficial.

The results reported in this paper are in line with those on bronchial musculature described in previous papers, and prove conclusively that the disturbances produced by the intravenous injection of these an certain other agents such as arsphenamine, bear no relationship whatsoever to anaphylaxis or anaphylactic shock.

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