THE ANTIANESTHETIC EFFECTS OF SOME CONVULSANTS IN THE ALBINO MOUSE

¹ From The Burroughs Wellcome & Co., U. S. A. Experimental Research Laboratories, Tuckahoe, New York

A group of commonly used convulsants were tested for antianesthetic properties on unsymmetrical n-propyl-o-tolyl urea and sodium-ethyl (l-methyl-butyl) barbiturate anesthetized mice, and the statistically treated results warrant the following deductions:

1. The drugs which show antianesthetic effects against the particular dose of the urea employed tend to be less effective against the barbiturate in the dose used.

2. Picrotoxin and metrazol are the most effective antianesthetics, followed closely by benzedrine. Caffeine and ephedrine are of lower potency and strychnine shows no antianesthetic power.

3. Anesthesia affects the toxicities of the antianesthetics variously, from a more than twofold decrease in the m.l.d. of picrotoxin to a fivefold increase in the m.l.d. of benzedrine.

4. Picrotoxin and metrazol appear to be the safest and benzedrine the unsafest of the particularly potent antianesthetics. This observation reflects the potential danger in using benzedrine for this purpose, but since benzedrine is a relatively effective antianesthetic it should be a very useful analeptic and nothing in our tests indicate that it cannot be used with safety for the latter purpose in the absence of anesthesia.