EFFECTS OF VASOMOTOR DEPRESSANTS UPON THE VOLUME OF THE LIVER

¹ From the Pharmacological Laboratory of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

The nitrite group of vaso-motor depressants lowers the portal blood pressure and decreases the volume of the liver. These effects are secondary to the changes produced in the general systemic blood pressure. The blood tends to accumulate therefore in other abdominal organs than the liver in contrast to the condition in anaphylactic shock in dogs and also as a result of certain poisons where the liver drains the remaining abdominal organs.

In the case of still other vasodilators, such as the depressant substance in dogs' urine, the exact location of the blood when the action is fully developed is not accurately known. This point together with an effort to bring some of these facts into an harmonious whole upon some definite physiological basis is a subject requiring further investigation.