PHENOL 245 



siderable time is required to destroy the organisms of certain diseases 

 and those relating to putrefaction. Some hours are required to kill an- 

 thrax spores, by even a 5 per cent, solution. Two per cent, solutions 

 destroy the digestive ferments. Animal and vegetable parasites, grow- 

 ing upon the skin, perish by the application of carbolic acid and it is 

 useful in the treatment of ringworm, lice, lungworm, and, especially, 

 mange in sheep, but is unsuitable for local use on dogs or cats, or on 

 their habitations. 



Action Internal. — Alimentary Canal. — Phenol exerts a local, anes- 

 thetic action upon the sensory nerve endings in the stomach, and may 

 act to a certain extent in the digestive tract as an antiseptic, hindering 

 abnormal fermentation. It is probably converted into a sulpho-carbolate 

 in the stomach. In concentration, carbolic acid is a powerful gastro- 

 intestinal irritant. 



Blood. — Carbolic acid is absorbed into the blood and probably cir- 

 culates in part as an alkaline carbolate of sodium and potassium. 



Heart and Blood Vessels. — Phenol, in poisonous doses, paralyzes 

 the vasomotor centres and later depresses the heart. The effect upon 

 the vessels is the more important and prominent, but neither action is 

 observed after medicinal doses. 



Respiration. — Therapeutic doses do not influence the respiratory 

 functions, but toxic quantities make the respiratory movements rapid 

 and shallow at first, owing to stimulation of the respiratory centre and 

 peripheral vagi, while death occurs after lethal amounts from paralysis 

 of the respiratory centre. 



Nervous System. — The brain is depressed by toxic doses of phenol 

 and stupor and coma occur. The convulsions appearing in carbolic acid 

 poisoning are due to primary stimulation of the spinal motor area, which 

 is finally depressed and paralyzed. When locally applied, phenol de- 

 presses and paralyzes the peripheral sensory nerves. 



Temperature. — Phenol, in medicinal doses, slightly lowers tempera- 

 ture both in health and fever, but it is not sufficiently antipyretic to be 

 suitable for such a purpose in practice. It depresses heat production and 

 increases heat loss. 



Elimination. — Phenol is eliminated by all ordinary channels, but 

 mainly by the kidneys. The urine becomes dark colored — a very char- 

 acteristic sign — even after large medicinal doses. Phenol normally oc- 

 curs in small quantities in the urine of man and animals. Three grains 

 have been recovered from the urine passed in 24 hours by a horse, and 

 phenol is thought to be a product of intestinal fermentation. In large, 

 toxic doses most of the carbolic acid is eliminated in the urine un- 

 changed. Part, however, is oxidized into two bodies — pyrocatechin and 

 hydroquinone — and these, as well as phenol, unite with sulphuric and 

 glycuronic acids in the tissues. Thus phenol is eliminated in the urine 

 as double sulphates and glycuronates of phenol, pyrocatechin and hydro- 

 quinone. The last two are unstable and further undergo oxidation into 

 dark substances, coloring the urine, which grows darker on exposure to 



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