SALICYLIC ACID AND SALICYLATES. 703 



statement of the medical history, the conclusion is inevitable that, 

 taken as a whole, the effects produced by its administration are unfa- 

 vorable. It is true that there are individual cases which, taken 

 alone, would lead presumably to a contrary opinion, and to these due 

 weight is given in the general conclusion. As a jury considering 

 conflicting testimony gives weight to that which seems most con- 

 vincing and least open to doubt, so in the decision of this case from 

 the medical history the verdict must follow the weight of testimony 

 and be given against the defendant, namely, salicylic acid. 



A summary of the most important indications leading to these con- 

 clusions is as follows, dealing with the average results obtained in 

 the body weight, effect on the blood and the urine, and the metab- 

 olism of nitrogen and phosphoric acid. 



BODY WEIGHT. 



If all the variations in weight be taken as a whole for the nine men 

 who completed the periods, it is noticed that there is a gradual dimi- 

 nution in weight, which falls from 62.71 kilograms with an average of 

 555 grams of dry food per day in the fore period to an average of 

 62.27 kilograms with an average of 564 grams of dry food per day in 

 the preservative period. This loss of weight is continued in a more 

 marked degree in the after period, where th$ average weight is 61.61 

 kilograms with 568 grams of dry food. Thus, although the quantity 

 of food is increased,the weight of the body is diminished. The general 

 conclusion, therefore, is in regard to the effect of the preservative 

 upon the weight of the body, that there is a greater waste than there 

 is a building up of the tissues, assuming, as we may practically do, 

 that the amount of energy and the temperature remain reasonably 

 constant. The general effect, therefore, of the salicylic acid is, under 

 the conditions specified, to diminish the weight of the body; in other 

 words, to interfere with the processes of nutrition by exciting the 

 katabolic activities io a greater degree than the anabolic. The com- 

 parison of the weights of each of the subjects, as well as of their 

 average weights, is best shown by consulting the graphic charts in 

 connection with the text. (Figs. 1 and 2.) 



MICROSCOPIC BODIES IN THE BLOOD. 



There is an increase in the number of red corpuscles in the blood 

 and also a slight increase m the number of white corpuscles during 

 the period of the administration of the preservative. The intensity of 

 the color of the blood diminishes, however, both in the preservative 

 period and in the after period. There is a marked decrease in the 

 number both of red and white corpuscles in the after period. The 

 apparent increase, therefore, in the preservative period is followed by 



