STUDIES ON BARBITURATES V. THE ACTION OF BARBITURATES IN SAUROPSIDA

¹ From the Department of Pharmacology and Materia Medica, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, D. C.

Fowls receiving anesthetic doses of barbital do not recover from barbital narcosis and eventually die of respiratory failure. The amount of barbital excreted by the fowl is less than one-half that excreted by the mammal. The concentration of barbital in the urine of the fowl is usually less than one-third that of the mammal. The period of excretion of barbital in the fowl is greatly prolonged. Diuretic measures in the fowl do not augment the output of barbital in the urine, and there may be retention of barbital in the blood and organs seventeen days after the administration of a single dose. Fowls recover rapidly from anesthesia produced by n-butyl ethyl barbituric acid ("neonal"), phenyl ethyl barbituric acid ("phenobarbital"), the sodium salt of ethyl-(1-methylbutyl) barbituric acid ("nembutal") and sec-butyl bromallyl barbituric acid ("pernoston"). Normal fowls excrete phenol red as do mammals, but barbitalized fowls lag in the excretion of the dye. Turtles excrete barbital very slowly and show low concentration of the drug in the urine. They show retention of barbital in the blood and organs eighty days following the administration of a single dose of barbital.