THE TOXICITY OF ORALLY-INGESTED TUNGSTEN COMPOUNDS IN THE RAT

¹ From the Department of Physiology, Medical College of the State of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina

In this type of feeding experiment, ammonium paratungstate is much less toxic in the rat than either tungstic oxide or sodium tungstate.

The diets of ammonium paratungstate, equivalent to 5.0 per cent W, the tungstic oxide, equivalent to 3.96 per cent W, and the sodium tungstate, equivalent to 2.0 per cent W, produced 100 per cent mortality in the rat while the ammonium paratungstate, equivalent to 2.0 per cent W, showed an 80 per cent mortality.

On the diets having a W equivalent of 0.5 per cent, the tungstic oxide produced death in 9 of 11 rats; sodium tungstate was fatal to 7 of 12 rats; while ammonium paratungstate produced no deaths. On the latter diet, at the end of 70 days, the males weighed 3.9 per cent less and the females 5.3 per cent less than the controls.

In the diets with a tungsten equivalent of 0.1 per cent, at the end of the 70-day experimental period on the tungstic oxide, the males weighed 6.3 per cent less and the females 7.4 per cent less than the controls. On the sodium tungstate diet, the males weighed 8.8 per cent less and the females 10.6 per cent less than the controls.

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