EVIDENCE FOR THE PRESENCE IN DIGITALIS OF A PRINCIPLE THAT IS ELIMINATED RAPIDLY AFTER INTRAVENOUS INJECTION INTO THE CAT

¹ From the Laboratory of Pharmacology of Cornell University Medical College

Seven specimens of digitalis were examined in order to determine the difference between the amounts required to cause death following the intravenous administration in the cat in short periods as contrasted with the amounts required in longer periods of administration.

Evidence is submitted to show that the total amount of digitalis required in this way to cause death is less when this amount is injected within a few minutes than that required when the administration is prolonged over a period of several hours. This is the opposite of the case with digitoxin of which more is required to cause death promptly than after the lapse of some hours.

The evidence that we are dealing with a body having a true digitalis action is afforded by the fact that it is synergistic with other digitalis bodies, such as ouabain.

The results obtained are interpreted as indicating the presence in the leaf of a digitalis body having a shorter period of cardiac action in the cat than that of any true digitalis body hitherto studied in this way. This brief period of cardiac action is regarded as evidence for its "elimination" in the sense previously defined.

There is some clinical evidence in support of the view here expressed.

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