1909.] Antimony Compounds in Trypanosomiasis in Rats. 251 



A few experiments were made with Schlippe's salt, sodium sulphanti- 

 monate ((NaS)3SbS); it destroyed the trypanosomes in the rat very satis- 

 factorily (see Table I), but induced very considerable local reaction, and 

 therefore appears to be precluded from use in therapeutics. This result 

 agrees with that obtained by Broden and Eodhain* in man. 



Table I. — Summary of Eesults of Treatment with Schlippe's Salt. 



I. 



II. 



III. 



IV. 



Number of rats 

 treated. 



Number of rats that died 

 without recurrence, but 

 before any deduction 

 could be made. 



Number of rats surviving 

 over one month after 

 cessation of treatment 

 without recurrence. 



Number of rats 

 in which 

 recurrence 

 occurred. 



20 



6 



3 



11 



Of the rats included in Column III : One survived 39 days, one 33 days 

 and one 76 days. The cause of death did not seem to be the disease or its 

 treatment. 



Of the rats included in Column IV : Eecurrence took place in 10, 21, 9, 

 10, 10, 13, 7, 13, 16, and 14 days, and all died within two weeks of the cessa- 

 tion of treatment from the recurrence (or from the last recurrence, for many 

 had more than one recurrence), with the exception of one which was alive 

 and well 244 days after cessation of treatment of the recurrence — the latter 

 by another drug (sodium antimonyl tartrate). 



In Schlippe's salt and in the glyceride, antimony is pentavalent, and 

 these were efficient trypanocides, especially the former, while the metanti- 

 moniate, where antimony is also pentavalent, possessed a low efficiency. 



The sulphantimoniate differs from the metantimoniate in its great 

 instability, and it seems probable that the marked local reaction arising 

 from it is due in great part to its being decomposed at the point of injection 

 with the deposit of the insoluble antimony sulphide Sb2S3, which produces 

 a slow, lasting reaction. Enough reaches the general tissues, however, 

 to react with the parasites, and here its instability, permitting of its forming 

 new compounds, renders it peculiarly active. The metantimoniate, on the 

 other hand, is much more stable, and probably fails to be reduced to the 

 trivalent form. 



The greater number of our experiments were done with the combinations 

 of antimony with the organic acids corresponding to the ordinary tartar 



* ' Arch. f. Schiffs- u. Tropenhygiene,' vol. 12, No. 14, 1908. 



X 2 



