THE EFFECT OF CARMINATIVE VOLATILE OILS ON THE MUSCULAR MOVEMENTS OF THE INTESTINE

¹ From the Department of Pharmacology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1. Carminative volatile oils increase the muscular movements in the intestine when applied to the mucous membrane in dilute solution in unanaesthetized dogs.

2. This increased activity involves an augmentation of tone and of rhythmic, contractions, and, at least during the increase in tone, progressing contraction rings (peristalsis) occur.

3. Occasionally the primary increase in muscular activity is followed by a decrease in tone and in amplitude of the rhythmic contractions.

4. These effects of the volatile oils are lessened but not abolished by atropine. They are abolished when the sensory endings of the mucosa are paralysed by cocaine.

5. When the muscular activities of the intestine are markedly increased by the injection of small doses of morphine in dogs, the same kind of effect is produced by the volatile oils as before the morphine was injected.