230 



Scientific Proceedings (115). 



An attempt was made to induce symptoms resembling tetany 

 by the intravenous injection of NaHC0 3 into dogs, under cocaine 

 anesthesia. Convulsions could be produced in this manner. 

 There was, also, a decrease in the hydrogen ion concentration of 

 the blood and plasma, as measured with the potentiometer or by 

 calculation from the bicarbonate and total C0 2 content. The 

 change in reaction was never great and was less in convulsions 

 than before the neuromuscular symptoms had become so marked. 

 Rapid injection produced apnea, with death from respiratory 

 failure, and not convulsions (Table I). The bicarbonate content 

 was enormously increased, the values observed ranging from 162 

 to 226 volumes per cent. C0 2 . At the reactions observed, such 

 bicarbonate concentrations require high tensions of CO2 in the 

 alveolar air, a value as high as 161 mm. being calculated in one 

 case from the observed total and bicarbonate C0 2 . The con- 

 vulsions could not be relieved by the injection of HC1, although 

 the bicarbonate content was thereby much reduced, to even below 

 the normal level. One dog received distilled water and another 

 a calcium chloride solution. The convulsions continued in both 

 cases but the life of the latter animal seemed to be prolonged some- 

 what. One dog received a mixture of bicarbonates containing 

 K, Ca and Mg in approximately 0.1 the concentration, relative 

 to the Na, that obtains in dog plasma. Another dog received 

 in one vein a mixture of sodium and potassium bicarbonates and, 

 in another vein, a mixture of calcium and magnesium chlorides. 

 The amounts injected were so adjusted as keep the relations be- 

 tween Na, K, Ca and Mg the same as those obtaining in dog 

 plasma. Both dogs developed convulsions, but the former at- 

 tained a higher concentration of sodium in the plasma than was 

 secured in any other experiment. 



Comparison with the results of similar experiments with other 

 sodium salts 1 indicates that the concentration of sodium in the 

 plasma required to produce convulsions is approximately the same 

 for sodium bicarbonate, chloride, phosphate or sulfate (Table II). 

 Attention is called to the experiments of Hougardy 2 who injected 



1 Greenwald, I., Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, I9i8 f 

 xi, 281. 



1 Hougardy, A., Archives international de Physiologic 1904, i, 17. 



