URINARY SULPHUR AND THIOCYANATE EXCRETION IN CYANIDE POISONING

¹ From the Department of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

1. The changes in urinary sulphur and nitrogen excretion were followed in rabbits, on a constant diet, subjected to hydrocyanic acid vapour in closed cages, over periods of weeks.

2. The neutral sulphur was relatively and absolutely increased on cyanide administration, the increase being approximately accounted for by the excretion of thiocyanate.

3. The rise in neutral sulphur excretion was usually accompanied by a corresponding fall in inorganic sulphate sulphur which equalled or surpassed the rise. Such findings were not without exception.

4. Cyanide poisoning caused an increase in the total nitrogen excretion of the urine and an increase in the N:S ratio both of which are in keeping with an increased catabolism of body protein.

5. Cyanide solution (n/100), administered to rabbits by slow intravenous injection, was recovered in the urine as thiocyanate, in proportions varying from 61 to 100 per cent, with an average of 72 per cent of the amount injected. When thiocyanate was injected as such, from 64 to 100 per cent, with an average of 80 per cent was recovered in the urine.

6. The increased urinary excretion of neutral or unoxidized sulphur in cyanide poisoning is believed to be due primarily to the detoxication process rather than to depressed oxidation.

7. If thiocyanate formation is not the only method of cyanide detoxication other processes are very secondary in importance to it.