HENRY G. BARBOUR 



Body Temperature. Increased heat elimination by blood dilution 

 probably plays a role in the cyanid temperature fall of mammals (dis- 

 covered by Hoppe-Seyler). 



Carbohydrate Metabolism. Zillessen describes an increased lactic 

 acid excretion, but contrary to the results of some authors obtained no 

 glycosuria. 



Protein Metabolism. Loewy finds that the total nitrogen excretion 

 is notably increased (mainly as urea), and that amino-acid excretion 

 occurs. 



V. Phosphorus, Arsenic, Heavy Metals, Etc. 



Phosphorus. The effects of phosphorus upon the metabolism are 

 associated with two distinct conditions, one largely of a catabolic nature, 

 the other anabolic. To the first, the toxic syndrome, much attention has 

 been devoted. 



Phosphorus poisoning is characterized by profound liver injury, in- 

 cluding fatty changes, in which respect the heart also is involved. The 

 liver glycogen is soon exhausted. There are a wasteful excretion of nitro- 

 gen, a somewhat high total metabolism and an acidosis associated espe- 

 cially with a high blood and urine content in lactic acid. 



While phosphorus was formerly assigned by many to the category 

 of asphyxia! poisons, Oswald and others have maintained that it acts 

 chiefly by impairing the anti-autolytic agents of the body. The present- 

 day theory of Lusk hinges largely upon the lactic acid accumulation. 



Total Metabolism. Phosphorus poisoning is not, as once believed, as- 

 sociated with a low level of bodily oxidations. Lusk has found that the 

 oxygen consumption in this condition is augmented, which observation 

 has been confirmed by Hirz. The former attributes the increase both to 

 fever and to augmented protein destruction. 



Fat Metabolism. In spite of the obvious shifting of the bodily fat, 

 its total combustion was found unaltered by Lusk. Loewi has com- 

 piled the figures of a number of observers with regard to fat and water 

 content of the liver. The normal ether extract varied from 2.8 to 3.6 

 per cent of moist liver. The ether extract in phosphorus poisoning varied 

 from 19.5 to 37.7 per cent of moist lirer. The water content of the liver 

 is slightly reduced when the fatty changes are marked. 



With regard to the origin of the liver fat, Lebedeff showed that fat 

 from other species injected subcutaneously in phosphorus-poisoned animals 

 can later be identified in the liver. Furthermore, in such animals fat 

 does not appear in the liver unless there is an ample store elsewhere in 

 the^body. The older hypothesis of true fatty degeneration (the fat being 

 derived from the impaired cells of the affected organ) therefore became 

 displaced by the theory of fatty infiltration. In support of this Taylor(a) 



