180 
On the Quantities of certain Metals that can be 
DETECTED IN THE BLOOD OF ANIMALS. 
By M. Ausset, Principal Assistant in the Chemical School at 
Alfort. 
The blood of some animals that were submitted to mercurial 
treatment has been analysed by M. Ausset, with the view of de- 
termining whether the presence of mercury could be detected in it. 
The blood was extracted six, seven, eight, and even ten hours after 
the exhibition of the mercury. The most delicate re-agents, such 
as the ioduret of potassium, the hydrosulphate of potash, polished 
plates of copper, and especially a plate of gold, surrounded by one 
of tin were used, but they yielded no trace of mercury, even though 
the effects of the poison on the frame was so violent as to cause the 
death of the animal. In point of fact, the blood had been extracted 
too late. 
M. Ausset also analysed the blood of horses submitted to the 
action of large doses of tartarized antimony. Both in the blood 
and the tissue of the secretory organs, particularly the liver and 
the kidneys, the presence of the emetic tartar was detected more 
easily, and the mineral existed in a greater quantity, in proportion 
to the shortness of the time that intervened between the exhibi- 
tion of the drug and the extraction of the blood. It did not, how- 
ever, appear that the quantity found in combination with the blood 
bore any definite proportion to that which had been administered, 
since the spots which were obtained on the porcelain by the ap- 
paratus of Marsh were the same, whatever was the dose that had 
been given : in fine, it would seem that there was between the 
blood and the tissues of the organs a degree of saturation that 
could not be passed. That which confirms this supposition is, that 
there was found a far more considerable quantity than in the 
fluids excreted, such as the urine. 
The acetate of lead, administered in a large dose, has been re- 
cognized in the blood of the horse. The method of detecting it 
was that employed by M. Orfila — its carbonization by the nitric 
acid, and the use of liquid re-agents on the filtrated residuum. 
The idea just before stated by M. Ausset, that the blood arrives 
almost immediately to a maximum of saturation, beyond which it 
seems impossible for any to be admitted into the system, however 
great may be the quantity employed, is confirmed by the result of 
certain experiments with the acetate of lead. The quantity of 
this salt found in the circulatory fluid was the same at the expira- 
tion of a given period, although the doses received into the diges- 
tive tube varied from 200 to 750 grains. 
Rec. de Med. Vet . Sep. 1840. 
