CUMULATIVE POISONING BY SQUILL DERIVATIVES AND BY OUABAIN

¹ From the Pharmacological Laboratory, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

1. Cumulation experiments were performed with ouabain, one tincture of digitalis, and four derivatives of squill (two crystalline, two amorphous).

2. The dog was chosen as the experimental animal. Each animal received a daily intravenous dose of a glucoside until death occurred. Electrocardiograms were made before and after each injection. The dose in each case was based upon the lethality as determined in acute experiments; these indicated that with the exception of scillaren B, there was practically no difference between the cat and the dog.

3. Scillonin, a crystalline derivative of squill, was found to be less than half as potent a cumulative poison as ouabain and probably less than one-third as potent in its cumulative effects as the other drugs used.

4. The acute toxic effects of scillonin in the mammal (continuous intravenous infusion) were as great as those of ouabain (lethal dose about 0.1 mgm. per kilogram). In the frog it was relatively the least toxic of the drugs used.