EFFECTS OF CERTAIN DRUGS AND POISONS 721 



of stale distilled water sometimes produce. He also failed to obtain salt 

 fever with intravenous Ringer solution. 



In the hands of the present author 20 c.c. per kilo of dextrose-free 

 Locke solution made with water freshly redistilled from glass gave the 

 same results as physiological sodium chlorid solution, a temperature 

 rise of over 1 C. when either was injected into the ear veins of normal 

 rabbits. (In both cases a fall of 0.2 C. during the first twenty minutes 

 was obtained.) Furthermore Harbour and Howard with 8 c.c. per kilo 

 of a similar Locke's solution intravenously injected were able after an 

 interval of fifteen minutes to superimpose a steep salt fever rise upon the 

 plateau of the "coli fever" curve in dogs. 



It certainly appears probable that salt fever is due chiefly to a loss of 

 water from the blood, whether the water be drawn chiefly to the kidneys, 

 to the site of salt administration or, on account of disturbed capillary 

 permeability (for which complex ion interchanges might bo responsible), 

 to other tissues. 



Hashimoto has shown that salt fever is less readily produced during 

 artificial warming of the "heat centers" in rabbits. The contention that 

 salt fever results from irritation of the "heat centers" by products of the 

 interaction of sodium with the tissues has not, however, been substantiated. 



The salt fever riddle has important bearings upon infectious fevers, in 

 many of which disturbances of the water and chlorid metabolism are well 

 recognized. 



Total Metabolism. Sodium chlorid increases oxidations slightly 

 whether given per os or subcutaneously. Freund and Graf found that 

 the heat production was augmented 8 per cent as against 22 and 28 

 per cent increases after Ringer and dextrose solutions, respectively. 



Raeder found in the case of subcutaneously injected saline solutions 

 that hypertonicity favors the increase in oxidations. This may be merely 

 the result of a higher body temperature or it may be due in part directly 

 to osmotic action. 



Tangl found the oxidations increased by sodium chlorid given per os 

 to curarized animals without kidneys. This would tend to relegate both 

 central nervous and diuretic factors to a position of secondary importance 

 in salt fever questions. Apparently dehydration into the stomach would 

 account for Tangl's results. 



Nitrogen Metabolism. In salt fever Freund and Grafe found 20 to 

 45 per cent increases in the excretion of urinary nitrogen (6). (Compare 

 the effects of water drinking described by Hawk.) Straub(6), however, 

 states that sodium chlorid in non-dehydrating* concentrations exerts a slight 

 sparing effect upon the nitrogen metabolism ; similar results have been ob- 

 tained with the nitrate, acetate, carbonate, sulphate or phosphate of sodium 

 (Loewi). 



