572 ABNORMALITIES IN METABOLISM 



Malpighian bodies of the spleen, etc.) does not agree with this hypo- 

 thesis, and there are too many evidences of the presence of some de- 

 cidedly toxic substance in the blood. There can be no question that 

 the poisonous substance or substances are formed in the burned area, 

 and not in the internal organs as a result of hyperpyrexia, as shown by 

 numerous observations. Thus, if the burned area is removed im- 

 mediately (in narcotized experimental animals), death will be pre- 

 vented, whereas if the burned tissue is permitted to remain for a few 

 hours, death will occur. If the burned skin is transplanted to a normal 

 animal, this animal will develop symptoms of intoxication, while the 

 burned animal may be saved by the transplantation (Vogt). The 

 poison appears to be absorbed from the burned area into the blood, 

 for if the circulation is shut off from the burned area, no intoxication 

 results; this probably explains in part why deep destructive burns of 

 small areas, which are associated with local thrombosis, are much less 

 serious than a superficial slight scalding over a large area. Apparently 

 the poison is produced chiefly or solely in the skin, for burning of 

 muscle is not followed by intoxication (Eijkman and Hoogenhu^'ze).-'' 

 When one of a pair of animals united to another by operative pro- 

 cedure (parabiosis) is burned, the other animal may become intoxi- 

 cated, while the intoxication of the burned animal is less than it 

 would be if it were alone (Vogt). 



Numerous investigators have reported finding poisonous sub- 

 stances in the blood, tissues, or urine of burned men and animals, but 

 the reports disagree widely in details.-^ Thus Dietrichs states that 

 the blood of burned animals contains hemolysins and hemagglutinins, 

 which could not be corroborated by Burkhardt-^ or by Pfcift'er.^'^ 

 The latter, however, finds that the urine, serum, and organs of burned 

 animals contain substances poisonous for the same and for different 

 species, which is in accord with the results of numerous earlier inves- 

 tigators. The poisons, according to Pfeiffer, are neurotoxic and necro- 

 genic in their properties, and act without a period of incubation; 

 they are rapidly weakened on standing in solution and by the action 

 of sunlight, are absorbed from the gastro-intestinal tract, are soluble 

 in water, alcohol, and glycerol, but not in chloroform or ether, are 

 precipitated by HgClc in acid solution, and by phosphotungstic acid, 

 and they are not volatile. Apparently, according to Pfeiffer, they 

 are not ptomains, nor yet pyridine derivatives, as many investigators 

 have contended, but resemble more closely the labile poisons of snake 

 venom, and have effects similar to the unknown poisons that are con- 

 cerned in uremia. The neurotoxic substance is more thormoslable 



" Virchow's Arch., 1906 (183), 377. 



^'^ Ravenna and Minassian (Rcf. in Bioclicni. Contr., 1903 (1), 348) state tliat 

 blood heated outside the body to 55°-G0° is toxic, and causes the same anatomical 

 changes as docs death from burning, which finding is corroborated by Helstcd. 

 Arch. klin. Chir., 1906 (79), 414. 



" Arch. klin. Chir., 1905 (75), 845. 



'« Virchow's Arch., 1905 (180), 367; Zeit. f. II vg.. 1906 (54), 419. 



