The toxicity of caffein : an experimental study on different species of animals / By William Salant and J. B. Rieger.

  • Salant, William, 1870-1943.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The toxicity of caffein : an experimental study on different species of animals / By William Salant and J. B. Rieger. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    THE TOXICITY OF CAFFEIN. INTRODUCTION. Comparative physiology lias established the fundamental fact that some properties are common to all forms of living matter. But the same method of inquiry has also led to the recognition of marked differences in the physic^logical processes of various species of animals. Among tlie most important investigations which contributed to the knowledge of such variation of function are the studies in comparative metabolism. It is now recognized that metabolism is in some resj^ects cpiite different in herbivora and in carnivora. Some forms of oxidation are much greater in the rabbit than in cats and dogs. Nuclein metabolism presents important differences in the rabbit and in man, while the mode of neutralizing acid in the body may be cited as another variation in the metabohsm of these forms. Perhaps the most striking examples of differences in the metabolism of different organisms is furnished by the results of studies on the fate of certain poisons introduced into the body. The classical experiments of Bunge and Schmiedeberg^^ '^on the syn- thesis of hippuric acid are of interest in this regard. It will be recalled that in the dog the synthesis takes place in the kidney; the rabbit is able to form hippuric acid in the liver as well as in the kidney, while frogs can synthesize hippuric acid even when both of these organs have been removed or excluded from the circulation. Observations on the fate of some of the alcohols of tlie fatty acid series have likewise s]lo^^^l that these substances maybe combined with glycuronic acid in some animals but not in others. According to Thierfelder and Von Mering, ^* ter- tiary alcohols are combined in tliis manner in the rabbit but not in the dog. According to Neubauer,®^ the primary and secondary alcohols are so combined in the dog as well as in tlie rabbit, but to a greater degree in the latter. Pohl '^ found that amyl alcohol is largely eliminated by the lungs in the cat and in the dog. The protocols of liis experiments show that 65 per cent of the alcohol given these animals was thus recovered, while he recovered only 22 per cent of this substance in the expired air of the rabbit. Examination of me urine showed the ])resence of glycuronic acid. Hofmeister's ^^ work with tellurium in the dog is of a The small Tigures refer to the bibliography at the end of this bulletin.