VI. — Some Expekiments on the Influence op Arsenic and 

 Antimony on Glycogenic Function and Fatty Degenera- 

 tion OF THE Liver. By R, H. Chittenden, and J. A. 

 Blake, B.A., Ph.B. 



Saikowsky's* oft-quoted experiments on rabbits with antimonic 

 and arsenious acids have made clear that in both arsenical and anti- 

 monial poisoning there is pronounced fatty degeneration of the liver, 

 with a lessening of the hepatic glycogen and in some cases even a total 

 disappearance of it. With antimonic acid, Saikowsky found in his 

 original experiments, that one-half to one gram of antimonic acid or 

 other preparation of antimony per day, for fourteen or nineteen days 

 in succession, gave rise to a fatty degeneration embracing the liver, 

 kidneys, and even the heart. This has been verified by the experi- 

 ments of Grohe and Hosier, who also state that in the duchy of 

 Brunswick the peasantry give to the geese, when producing the 

 famous fatty livers, a certain quantity of the white oxide of antimony 

 every day.f With arsenic, Saikowsky likewise found that when 

 rabbits are poisoned by a small dose so as to live from three to six 

 days, the liver becomes much enlarged and very fatty and the glyco- 

 genic function nearly or quite abolished. 



It is very evident, therefore, that in large quantities both arsenic 

 and antimony have a special action on tissue changes, particularly 

 on the liver. In the experiments referred to above, the quantities of 

 poison given were quite large and with arsenic, particularly, their ad- 

 ministration was soon followed by death. As neither of these sub- 

 stances are ordinarily used in medicine for an acute eifect, it seemed to 

 us of interest to study the action of small doses on the tissue changes of 

 the liver, with a view to ascertaining whether non-toxic doses of these 

 two poisons would produce a similar effect. It is ordinarily stated 

 that in poisoning with antimony, phosphorus, and arsenic the nitro- 

 genous products of tissue waste appear in the urine in much larger 

 quantity than normally, owing to the increased decomposition which 

 is going on. I Experiments of our own, however, have shown that 



*Virchow's Archives, Band xxxiv, p. 78. 



•)• Quoted from H. C.Wood's Therapeutics, p. 161. 



Ij. Brunton's Pharmacology, Therapeutics and Materia Medica, p. :^60. 



