DETOXIFICATION BY SULPHURIC ACID 477 



Detoxification by Sulphuric Acid and Sulphur-containmg 

 Rests. There still remain a group of conjugation processes 

 possible to the system to be rapidly reviewed. 



First may be mentioned the conjugation of phenols with 

 sulphuric acid, discovered by Baumann, which follows the 





schema : C 8 H 6 .OH + KHSO 4 = SO 4 < + H 2 O ; which is applicable 



C|H 6 



also to dioxyphenol, trioxyphenol, halogen-phenols, nitro- 

 phenols, aminophenols, cresols, thymols, many substitution 

 benzoic acids, etc. In the combination of sulphuric acid 

 (doubtless originating principally from oxidized protein-sul- 

 phur) with phenols we undoubtedly possess a method of 

 detoxifying. After Marfori had discovered that intraven- 

 ous injection of ammonium sulphate is capable of detoxify- 

 ing- a certain amount of phenol, it was shown from a study in 

 F. Hofmeister's laboratory 61 that the sulphates are decid- 

 edly less efficient as detoxifying agents than the salts of sul- 

 phurous acid. The most efficient antidote for phenol poison- 

 ing is apparently, however, the salts of persulphuric acid, 62 

 H 2 S 2 8 . Babbits which have received a subcutaneous injec- 

 tion of "persodin" (a mixture of sodium- and ammonium- 

 persulphate) can withstand far more than the maximal dose 

 of phenol, sometimes without manifesting the least symp- 

 toms of poisoning. 



An interesting antitoxic process may be seen, too, in the 

 combination of hydrocyanic acid and nitriles to form sulpho- 

 cyanides (KCN + S = KCNS) and the hastening of this 

 synthesis by the introduction of thiosulphates, discovered by 

 Sigmund Lang in F. Hofmeister's laboratory. In spite of 

 the rapid action of hydrocyanic acid several times the lethal 

 dosage may be robbed of its effect by supplementary intra- 

 venous exhibition of the thiosulphate. 63 



61 8. Tauber (F. Hofmeister's Lab.), Arch. f. exper. Pathol., 86, 196, 1895. 



62 G. Bufalini, Arch. ital. de Biol., 40, 131, 1904. 



63 S. Lang (F. Hofmeister's Lab., Prague), Arch. f. exper. Pathol., S6, 75, 

 1894. 



