THE FATE OF ARSENIC IN THE BODY. 



641 



i; that of Lieut. -Col. H. Watkins-Pitchford,* whose data may 

 be quoted here — Table i, representing his Schedule " F," p. 61. 



Table i. 



Pitchford's Schrdulk " F." To show the Elimination of Arsenic i5Y 



THE KiDVEYS AT VARIOUS PERIODS AFTER DIPPING. 



On general physiological grounds these numbers appeared to 

 us as inordinately high, especially a figure such as .097 per cent., 

 which should rather indicate an acute arsenical intoxication. If 

 we take the average elimination of this beast No. 31 for the first 

 day as .069 per cent. AsjOg, and assume that so little as 3 litres 

 of urine was passed in the 24 hours, we should have over 2 gm. 

 eliminated ; a quantity which, when passed straight into the 

 blood-stream in soluble form, may easily prove fatal. If we 

 consider that the daily output of urine is more likely to have been 

 three times as high as that taken for his calculation, and observe 

 the continued elimination on succeeding days, the animal is sug- 

 gested as absorbing several times the toxic dose every time it 

 is dipped. 



Two regularly-dipped oxen were therefore put up for collec- 

 tion of urine, one whidh had been dipped at three-day intervals 

 for two months, and the other at five-day intervals for four 

 months. At the time it was not feasible to collect the total urine 

 eliminated with any degree of accuracy, and the figures may 

 therefore be given as analyses of samples in the form adopted 

 by Pitchford. Table 2; periods approximate: 



*Pitchford: Pamplilet on "Tick Destruction by Dipping," reprinted 

 by P. Davis & Son. Natal. 



