EXPERIMENT 75. Small dog, weighing about 13 pounds. Morphia and ether said to have been used. During this experiment the intestines were exposed and manipulated, and the foot and tail "CRUSHED." "THE LEFT HIND-FOOT WAS BURNED; A RISE IN THE BLOOD-PRESSURE FOLLOWED."
EXPERIMENT 96. Dog. NO ANAESTHETIC MENTIONED. Artificial respiration. "BURNING HIND-PAW PRODUCED A RISE IN BLOOD-PRESSURE." After administration of CURARE, there was another "BURNING OF THE PAW," the blood-pressure did not respond, and shortly after, the dog died.
EXPERIMENT 95. Dog, in good condition. NO ANAESTHETIC MENTIONED. Integument removed from three-fourths of the body. "BURNING OF THE HIND-PAW. ABRUPT RISE (of blood-pressure), 55 MILLIMETRES, then an equal fall. The denuded surfaces were roughly sponged for a considerable time." Then CURARE was given, and artificial respiration followed.
EXPERIMENT 46. Mongrel; good condition. An excessive amount of ether given at beginning; artificial respiration became necessary. Extensive operations were made, such as crushing the paws, breaking the legs, and manipulating the nerve trunks. These were followed by A RISE IN BLOOD-PRESSURE.
EXPERIMENT 104. NO ANAESTHETIC NAMED. Dog.
"11.26 a.m. Animal reduced to surgical shock by skinning and
mechanically irritating the raw surface.
11.36 a.m. CURARE given.
11.58 a.m. Electrical stimulation of sciatic (nerve). RISE OF
BLOOD-PRESSURE.
12.48 p.m. Sciatic nerve stimulated. RISE OF BLOOD-PRESSURE.
1.12 p.m. Electrical stimulation of sciatic nerve cause A RISE …
IN BLOOD PRESSURE.
2.40 p.m. Animal died."
When Dr. Francis Gotch, F.R.S., the professor of physiology in the University of Oxford, was examined before the late Royal Commission on Vivisection, he testified that under curare an animal could not even blink an eye, so complete is the immobility produced by this drug. Yet to the eye of the experimenter would there not be something to tell him whether or not the animal was feeling pain?
"I should say so," replied the physiologist—"in the alternations of blood-pressure."
"IT IS A RISE OF BLOOD-PRESSURE, is it not?" inquired one of the
Commissioners.
"YES," was the physiologist's curt reply.