[605] Lancet, Sept. 30, 1882.
§ 586. Physiological Action as shown by Experiments on Animals.—In spite of numerous experiments on animals and man, the action of the ergot principles remains obscure. It has been found in medicine to exert a specific action on the uterus,[606] causing powerful contractions of that organ, especially in labour. It is also a hæmostatic, and is used to check bleeding from the lungs and other internal organs of the body. This hæmostatic action, as well as the extraordinary property possessed by ergot, of producing an arrest or disturbance of the circulation inducing gangrene has naturally led to the belief that ergot causes a narrowing in the calibre of the small arteries, but this has not received the necessary experimental sanction. Holmes,[607] Eberty, Köhler,[608] and Wernick,[609] all observed a contraction in the part to which the ergot was applied, both in frogs and in warm-blooded animals; but L. Hermann,[610] although he made many experiments, and used the most different preparations, never succeeded in observing a contraction. It would also seem reasonable to expect that with a narrowing of the vessels, which means a peripheral obstruction, the blood-pressure would rise, but on the contrary the pressure sinks, a fact on which there is no division of opinion.
[606] In a case in which the author was engaged, a dabbler in drugs, having seduced a young woman, administered to her a dose of ergot which produced a miscarriage, and for this offence he was convicted. The defence raised was that ergot is a common medicine used by physicians in the treatment of amenorrhœa, and other uterine affections. Although in itself this statement was perfectly true, as a defence it was invalidated by the large dose given, the fact of the seduction, and the other circumstances of the case.
[607] Archiv d. Physiol. Norm. u. Pathol., iii. p. 384.
[608] Ueber die Wirkungen des Secale Cornutum, Dissert. Halle, 1873.
[609] Arch. f. pathol. Anat., lvi. p 505.
[610] Lehrbuch der exper. Toxicologie, Berlin, 1874, p. 386.