III.— THE ACTION OF VANADINE. 



For some years attempts have been made to utilise in practice the 

 remarkable oxidising properties of vanadium and its compounds. 

 Vanadic acid, vanadate of soda, and vanadine have all been studied, 

 and have been recommended in the treatment of pneumonia, rheu- 

 matism, and tuberculosis. 



I have made an experimental and therapeutic study of various 

 preparations of vanadium, but especially of vanadine. Considerable 

 doses of vanadine may be injected into the connective tissue or veins 

 of animals without producing any toxic symptoms, in the guinea-pig a 

 subcutaneous injection of thirty to fifty minims produces no appre- 

 ciable disturbance. In most cases nothing abnormal follows hypo- 

 dermic injection of i c.cm. per loo grammes (approximately fifteen 

 minims per three ounces) of body-weight, but a double dose is fatal. 

 Guinea-pigs of 400 to 600 grammes (approximately twelve and a half 

 ounces to eighteen and a half ounces) in weight bear hypodermic or 

 intra-peritoneal injections with i c.cm. (fifteen minims) of vanadine 

 repeated every second or third day, for a considerable period. In the 

 rabbit intra-venous injection of i c.mm. of vanadine per kilogramme is 

 well borne, and the animal often survives doses four times as large. A 

 rabbit of five pounds weight, which had received 120 minims of 

 vanadine in the auricular vein, showed grave symptoms (convulsions, 

 paresis, dyspnoea, and prostration), which continued for several hours, 

 but the animal gradually recovered. A dog, weighing sixteen and a 

 half pounds, showed no disturbance after an intra-venous injection of 

 120 minims of vanadine ; nor was anything noted in a dog weighing 

 eighty one and a half pounds, which received into the saphenous vein 

 two fluid ounces of vanadine. A horse weighing 528 lbs. showed 

 nothing appreciable after a first intra-venous injection of fourteen fluid 

 drachms of vanadine, followed some days later by a further injection 

 of two fluid ounces. In a horse weighing 594 lbs., an injection of 

 twenty-eight fluid drachms of vanadine into the jugular produced rest- 

 lessness, trembling, soft evacuations, and lowering of temperature to 

 the extent of i'^ C. 



