ipis] Max Kahn 401 



Experimental toxicology. Mitscherlich^'^ was one of the first 

 to conduct a series of experiments to determine the toxicity of 

 tartaric acid. In his work on rabbits and cats, he found that 10 

 gm. of the acid were necessary to kill a rabbit, when the substance 

 was administered per os. In a cat, 5 gm. failed to induce Symp- 

 toms. He also found that rabbits are more susceptible to citric 

 acid than to tartaric, 5 gm. of the former being sufficient to cause 

 death. 



After painting the skin of a frog with dilute citric or tartaric 

 acid, Goltz and Bobrick^^ observed very marked slowing of the 

 heart, with final stoppage. 



In 1893, Chabrie,^^ investigating the differences in toxicity of 

 the various stereoisomeric tartaric acids, found that /-tartaric acid 

 is the most toxic, whereas cf-tartaric acid is only half as toxic. He 

 determined the lethal dose f or rabbits in the f ollowing way : Certain 

 quantities of the acids were necessary to kill rabbits of the same 

 weight in a certain time. There was a definite ratio between these 



doses, which he expressed by the function y. He suggested the 



f ollowing formula: 



I p ' 1000 



where p is the dose used, P the weight of the animal in gm., and T 

 the time in minutes. From his experiments he found, 



X( l ) =0.031; 

 X{d) =0.014; 

 X(f) =0.008; 

 X(m) = 0.006. 



Attention has already been called to the difference in the behavior 

 of these stereoisomeres in yeast fermentation. Chabrie also re- 

 ported that /^-tartaric acid (racemic) is only one fourth as toxic 

 as the £/-acid, and that the w-acid is wholly non-toxic. 



27 Mitscherlich : De acidi acetici, oxalici, tartarici, formici et boracici effectu 

 in animalibus observato, Berlin, 1845, p. 27. 



28 Goltz and Bobrick : Königsberg med. Jahrb., 1863, iv, p. 95. 



29 Chabrie : Conipt. rend., 1893, cxvi, p. 1410. 



