A sensory nerve of the heart, termed the “depressor,” is the chief agent in lowering blood-pressure. Its course is not the same in all animals, but it runs more or less in conjunction with the vagus. Usually it joins its superior laryngeal branch. Impulses which ascend this nerve inhibit the constriction of the splanchnic vessels. They open a floodgate which brings down the general pressure. The severe pain and extreme distress of angina pectoris are the cry of the heart when blood-pressure is too high—when it feels unable to work against it. This was recognized by physiologists long before a remedy was known. A systematic search was instituted for a drug which could be used with safety to lower blood-pressure. The discovery that the inhalation of amyl nitrite answers this purpose and fulfils this condition was the result.
[Illustration: FIG. 13.—MANOMETER FOR MEASURING BLOOD-PRESSURE.
A =U=-tube contains mercury, on which floats a rod supporting a scratching point, which makes a “tracing” on blackened paper wrapped round a revolving drum. Between the manometer and the cannula which is introduced into the central end of a cut artery is a three-way cock, which leads to a pressure-bottle containing a half saturated solution of sodic sulphate. This solution prevents blood from clotting. Before it is connected with the artery the apparatus is filled from the pressure-bottle. The cock is then turned into the second position, and the bottle raised until the mercury in the manometer stands at a level somewhat higher than that which it may be expected to attain under the influence of blood-pressure. The cannula being then inserted into an artery, the cock is turned into the third position, which places the manometer in connection with the blood, and excludes the pressure-bottle. As the mercury is a little higher than blood-pressure, some of the sodic sulphate solution enters the artery, but no blood enters the cannula. The scratching point, rising and falling with every variation in blood-pressure, makes a record on the soot-blackened paper, which is subsequently removed from the drum, and varnished.]
When we consider the hydrostatics of the circulation, it becomes evident that changes in the force with which the heart beats, and changes in the calibre of the bloodvessels, work together in determining blood-pressure. Both vessels and heart contract automatically—the former continuously, the latter rhythmically. The heart of a frog, if it is enclosed in a moist chamber, beats for a long time after its removal from the animal. Even when cut in pieces, in certain ways, the separate pieces beat. A strip from the ventricle of a tortoise’s heart, kept gently stretched by the weight of a light lever attached to one of its ends, continued to contract rhythmically for forty-eight hours. When the heart has come to a pause, it cannot be started again by stimulating any nerve. It has in the most marked degree its own views as to the rapidity and force with which it ought to beat. But within certain limits it is under nervous control. The accelerators hasten it, to its own detriment. They belong to the division of katabolic nerves—a name given them to indicate that they waste the tissues, impoverishing their condition. The vagus nerve slows the heart. It protects it from itself. Its action is anabolic. The condition of the heart is improved under its influence. If it has been kept in check for a time by stimulation of the vagus, the heart beats more strongly when this nerve ceases to act than it did before it was induced to rest.