Abstract
1. The influence of water-intake on the different types of experimental mercurial intoxication is studied in rabbits, and its importance in the comparative estimation of toxicity pointed out.
2. A basis for the comparison of the toxic action of mercury compounds, is given, in terms of a "minimal toxic dose" defined as, that weight of substance in grams per kilogram of rabbit, which when injected intravenously into animals kept on a "basal water-free diet," led to progressive emaciation and death in seven to fourteen days.
3. The mechanism of this chronic intoxication is attributed to some derangement in the animal's water metabolism, rather than to the associated nephritis.
4. Comparative studies of toxicity, based upon the "minimal toxic dose," in eighteen different mercury compounds, show that mercurial toxicity is not in direct relation to either the quantity per se of mercury injected or to the general chemical reactivity of the substance as shown by the action of certain chemical reagents (NaOH, H2S, etc.), but rather dependant primarily upon the direct chemical linkage of the metal. The finer changes in chemical constitution exert very little influence upon the ultimate "pure" mercury action of such compounds from the point of view of toxicity.
Footnotes
- Received August 11, 1930.
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