Text book of veterinary medicine, Volume 3 (of 5)Law, James
Science
Text book of veterinary medicine, Volume 3 (of 5)
Law, James
Veterinary medicine
The strength of the solution of atropine is an important consideration.
Donders found that 1:120 of water produced a full effect, while Jaarsma
obtained the full effect in one hour from a drop of a solution of one to
twelve hundred of water. The action on carnivora (dogs and cats) is
equivalent to that on man, while on the herbivora (rabbit, horse, ox,
sheep) it is somewhat less, and on birds very slight indeed. On diseased
eyes a large amount may be required, and with synechia (adhesion of the
iris to the capsule of the lens) dilatation may be impossible. The full
effect may last 24 hours, and accommodation may remain very imperfect
for 11 days.
The direct action of atropine on the eye is shown in dilatation of the
pupil of the frog after the eye has been detached from all connection
with heart or brain, by excision. It acts also in the normal system
through reflex nervous action, since, after division of the sympathetic
trunk going to the eye, that eye does not dilate so much under atropia
as the opposite eye.
Atropine is usually employed by lodging a drop in the pouch of the
conjunctiva (inside the lower lid), and from this it makes its way into
the aqueous humor, for if that liquid is transferred to the conjunctiva
of another animal it causes dilatation. Puncture of the cornea with
evacuation of the aqueous humor lessens the action of the atropine.
Atropine dilatation is increased by following it with cocaine which
causes contraction of the iridian vessels, the antithesis of the
dilatation of the vessels which occurs when the cornea is perforated and
the pressure of the aqueous humor is removed.
Atropine is one of the most potent poisons and must be used with caution
especially in the carnivora and omnivora. The danger lies not alone in
the absorption from the conjunctiva, but also from the escape of the
liquid through the lachrymo-nasal duct, to the nose and later to the
actively absorbing mucosæ of the lungs and stomach.
The symptoms of general poisoning are: rapid pulse, vertigo, weakness of
posterior limbs, general prostration and thirst or dryness of the
throat.
=Homatropine= is an oily liquid produced by the action of muriatic acid
on the cyanate of atropine. With hydrobromic acid it forms a readily
crystallizable salt, the solution of which acts on the eye like
atropine, but more promptly and transiently. One drop of a solution of
one to one hundred and twenty, usually gives in twenty minutes, full
pupillary dilation and complete paralysis of accommodation which lasts
only for twenty-four hours. Add to this that there is little danger of
constitutional disturbance and poisoning, and homatropine must be
accepted as a more desirable agent than atropine. It is especially to be
preferred in cases of senility with shallow anterior chambers, and in
glaucoma, in which atropine tends to aggravate the lesion.
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