314 TOXIC EFFECTS 



ful bases. In stimulating the skin and mucous surfaces 

 iodine shows some resemblance to arsenic and sulphur. 



Toxic EFFECTS. Hertwig gave horses forty to sixty grains 

 of solid iodine twice daily for fourteen days, with the effect 

 of causing slight diarrhoea, with black evacuations and in- 

 creasing emaciation. Dick repeatedly gave larger quan- 

 tities for several weeks, without observing any other 

 symptom than the total refusal of water. To one horse 

 he administered for three weeks doses of two drachms per 

 day, and towards the end of the experiment doses amounting 

 to two ounces daily. Several ounces have also been given 

 to cattle with the like negative results. In many of these 

 cases the iodine, having been given in the solid form, must 

 have been slowly, perhaps only partially, dissolved and 

 absorbed, and, during tardy solution, may in great part 

 have been neutralised by contact with starch food. 



Dogs receiving two or three drachms of solid iodine 

 speedily get rid of it by vomiting ; but when the oesophagus 

 is tied such doses cause fatal gastro-enteritis in two to seven 

 days, leaving numerous yellow spots and little ulcers in the 

 stomach, and a peculiar rose tint of the liver (Cogswell). 

 Hertwig found that such doses killed every dog to which 

 they were given, inducing sero-sanguineous exudation and 

 hsematuria. Frohner states that intravenous injection 

 causes solution of the red globules, inducing hsemoglobinuria, 

 anaemia, lung oedema, haemorrhagic inflammation of the 

 pleura and peritoneum, and bloody discharges from the 

 bowels and kidneys. 



lodism, produced by prolonged administration of full 

 doses, is characterised by loss of appetite, an irritable, 

 catarrhal condition of the mucous membranes of the nostrils, 

 eyes, throat, and digestive organs, a vesicular skin eruption, 

 abstinence from water, diminution of the urinary secretion, 

 languor, inaptitude for exertion, elevation of temperature 

 and emaciation. Such effects are produced in some animals 

 by full doses given for eight or ten days. But in ordinary 

 practice iodism is exceedingly rare in the lower animals, 

 although not uncommon in man. Where it occurs, it is 

 arrested by withholding the medicine, exhibiting starch, in 

 order to convert any unabsorbed iodine into the innocuous 



