Part 23

Tiraboschi, A., and Taito, F. Avvelenamento da Bario. Il Risveglio Medico d'Abruzzo e Molise, vol. 1, p. 171. 1906.

NOTE.--A criticism of this case is to be found in Bellisari, G., Su Di un Presunto Avvelenamento da Bario. Il Risveglio Medico d'Abbruzzo e Molise, vol. 2, p. 15. 1907.

Lopes, A. Caso Curioso de Envenenamento Pelo Chloret de Bario. Medicina Contempt., Lisbon, vol. 4, p. 109. 1886.

Stern, E. Vergiftung mit Chlorbarium. Zeits. f. Medizinalbeamte, vol. 9, p. 383. 1896.

NOTE.--The writer has always theoretically questioned the danger of poisoning by loco weeds in well-fed and well-watered animals. Compare Stalker, M., The "Loco" Plant and Its Effect on Animals. Bur. Animal Industry, 3d Ann. Report (1886), p. 271. 1887.

Lisfranc. Leçon sur l'Emploi du Muriate de Baryte contre les Tumeurs Blanches. Gaz. Méd. de Paris, 2 s., vol. 4, p. 215. 1836.

Pauli, W., and Fröhlich, A. Pharmakodynam. Studien. Sitz. Kaiserl. Acad. d. Wissens. z. Wien, vol. 115, III, pt. 6, p. 445. 1906.

=PATHOLOGICAL LESIONS IN EXPERIMENTAL BARIUM POISONING.=

The post-mortem examinations in cases of acute experimental barium poisoning, according to Schedel, show punctiform or large hemorrhagic effusion in the fundus ventriculi and in the large and small intestines, contraction of the bladder, and hemorrhage into the walls of the bladder and uterus. The heart is usually found relaxed or the left ventricle contracted in systole, while the right is relaxed. Only once were ecchymoses under the endocardium seen. The liver and kidneys showed nothing special. The urine was free from albumen and sugar. In a few cases the lungs showed some infiltration with blood. In chronic cases, according to our own investigations in rabbits, there are no characteristic macroscopic lesions, a result which agrees with Mittelstaedt's report. Nothnagel and Rossbach claim that in chronic poisoning by barium the peripheral nerves are altered. The same negative results have also been reported in chronic poisoning in higher animals. Reynolds noted a layer like a blood clot under the cerebellum in a horse fed with barium chlorid. Fuchs has called attention to the fact that the flesh of cattle poisoned with barium chlorid was harmless, perhaps owing to a conversion into an insoluble salt, a fact which may be considered in the use of locoed animals for food.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

Schedel, H. Beitr. z. Kennt. d. Wirkung des Chlorbariums. 1903, p. 13.

After subcutaneous injection of barium chlorid, Lewin, by means of the spectroscope, has found barium in the stomach walls. Lewin, L. Schicksal körperfremder chem. Stoffe im Menschen u. besonders ihre Ausscheidung. Deutsch. Med. Woch., vol. 32, p. 173. 1906.

Mittelstaedt, F. Ueber chronische Bariumvergiftung. Dissert., Greifswald, 1895, p. 29.

Nothnagel, H., and Rossbach, M. J. Handb. d. Arzneimittel, p. 81. 1904.

Reynolds, M. H. A Study of Certain Cathartics. Minn. Agric. Exper. Sta., 15th Ann. Rept. 1907.

Fuchs, C. J. Vergiftungsfälle durch salzsäuren Baryt beim Rindvieh. Thierärztl. Mittheil., vol. 5, p. 159. 1870. Fuchs suggests that further investigations on this point are desirable. The literature of this class of experiments is very scanty. See Fröhner and Knudsen, Einige Versuche über d. Geniessbarkeit d. Fleisches vergift. Thiere. Monats. f. Prakt. Thierheilk., vol. 1, p. 529. 1890.

=TOXICITY OF VARIOUS AQUEOUS EXTRACTS OF LOCO PLANTS.=

On October 21, 1907, a rabbit weighing 1,531 grams was fed with an extract of 95 grams of dried Aragallus lamberti (Hugo, Colo., 1907), with an ash content of 12.44 per cent, with a barium content estimated as 2.6 milligrams of BaSO_{4} in 1 gram of ash. On the following day it weighed 1,517 grams, and the same dose was again administered. On October 23 the weight was 1,488 grams, and the dose was repeated. On the next day the weight was the same and the dose was repeated. On October 26 the weight was 1,446 grams, and again the same extract was given. On October 30 the animal weighed 1,502.5 grams; on October 31, 1,531 grams. The animal received a total extract of 475 grams of the dried plant without serious injury. This result was apparently contradictory to the earlier work.

On October 21, 1907, a rabbit weighing 1,743 grams was fed with an extract of 47.5 grams of the same dried plant. On the next day its weight was 1,729 grams, and the same amount of the extract was fed. On October 23 the weight remained the same, and the dose was repeated. On October 24 the weight was 1,658 grams, and the same amount of extract was fed. On October 26 the animal weighed 1,630 grams, when it was again fed with the same amount of extract. On October 28 the animal weighed 1,573.5 grams, but two days later the weight had risen to 1,644 grams. An extract of 237.5 grams had been administered. Here again the results appeared contradictory.

On October 21, 1907, a rabbit weighing 1,517 grams was fed with an extract of 77.5 grams. On the next day it weighed 1,545 grams, and the dose was repeated. On October 23 the animal weighed 1,531 grams, and the same amount of extract was given. On the following day it weighed 1,488 grams, and the dose was repeated. On October 26 it weighed 1,474 grams, and again the dose was repeated. On October 30 the weight had risen to 1,545 grams, and on October 31 it was 1,559 grams. This animal received in all an extract of 387.5 grams of the dried plant. An aqueous extract of 200 grams of the same in one dose also failed to produce the acute symptoms.

These feeding experiments show little of the characteristic action seen in the earlier experiments made with aqueous extracts either of the dry plant or of the fresh plant preserved with chloroform. In other words, the aqueous extract of the dried plant was only slightly poisonous, yet the plant from which the extract was made contained barium.

Of this same dried loco 200 grams were then extracted with water and digested with pepsin and finally with pancreatin in the thermostat (37.5°C.). The extract was concentrated and fed to a rabbit weighing 1,616 grams. After five hours and ten minutes the animal appeared weak in the fore legs and unable to support himself, and he died during the night. The intestines the following morning were found full of gas, the stomach red, the lungs seemed normal, and the heart was relaxed.

A rabbit weighing 1,545 grams was fed on November 15, 1907, with a preparation made in a similar manner, save that the plant was not extracted with water before digestion. On the next day it weighed 1,517 grams and on November 19, 1,361 grams. The following day the weight was 1,318 grams; on November 21, 1,233 grams, and on the next day 1,162 grams. The animal died during the night, and the autopsy was made the following morning.

The animal was greatly emaciated and the subcutaneous fat had almost all disappeared. The mesenteric vessels were dilated, but the intestines were not dilated. The peritoneal cavity was normal. The kidneys were perhaps a little injected, and measured 3 cm. in length. The lungs were normal. The left ventricle was contracted and the rest of the heart relaxed. The liver was normal and the spleen apparently normal. The stomach walls were dark, owing to decomposition. No ulcers were seen. The suprarenals were perhaps a little enlarged. The examination of the brain was negative, and no clots were found.

A similar digestion from 200 grams of the same dried plant was then ashed and the ash treated with acetic acid and freed from acid by evaporation on the bath. The ash which was insoluble in water was ground up into a fine paste and the whole was fed to a rabbit weighing 992 grams. This animal died in forty minutes, showing the characteristic symptoms seen in acute cases already described. In the autopsy the lungs and other organs seemed perfectly normal macroscopically. The stomach walls, however, were reddened and ecchymotic, and the mesenteric vessels were dilated.

On January 8, 1908, a similar digestion of the same batch was treated with a few drops of sulphuric acid to remove the barium, and the filtrate was then treated with lead carbonate to remove the sulphuric acid. After careful filtering, H_{2}S was passed into the solution and after concentration was fed in one dose on January 9, 1908, to a rabbit. The following morning the rabbit had gained in weight. On January 14 this animal weighed 30 grams more than its initial weight.

The residue of this plant after such a digestion, examined by the Hillebrand method, showed no weighable amount of barium, so that it can be seen that barium in relatively large amount was found in the plant itself, but not after the digestion. It must therefore have been the aqueous digestion which produced the characteristic symptoms. The examination of this fluid for barium might, however, be misleading, as the large amount of proteids would unquestionably interfere with the determination of this amount of barium, unprotected by other salts and silica, so that this side of the investigation was not pursued. Control feedings with an emulsion of one-half gram each of pepsin and pancreatin proved inactive.