May 15, 1925 
Carbon Trichloride as an Anthelmintic 
951 
No. 668, 9.5 kilos, 4 gm. (0.42 g. p. k.); 
No. 669, 7 kilos, 1 gm. (0.14 g. p. k.); 
No. 670, 6 kilos, 6 gm. (1 g. p. k.). 
These dogs had been fasted overnight 
previous to the morning of treatment. 
The feces next day showed no worms, 
except 3 gravid Dipylidium segments, 
but all of the feces contained an abund¬ 
ance of the carbon trichloride crystals, 
the amount seen being such as to sug¬ 
gest that the total amount passed was 
practically identical with the amount 
administered. The crystals seemed 
unchanged in size, shape, and general 
appearance. The following day there 
were no worms in the feces except 
Dipylidium segments, and there were 
no crystals. Satisfied that carbon 
trichloride crystals alone were approxi¬ 
mately as insoluble in the digestive 
tract as in water, that they passed 
through the digestive tract, for the 
most part, in the course of 24 hours, 
and that they did not remove worms, 
the theory that this oil-soluble chemi¬ 
cal might be put in contact with worms 
and its anthelmintic constituent ren¬ 
dered available and effective by the 
simultaneous administration of castor 
oil was next tested as follows. 
FINE POWDER ADMINISTERED IN CAP¬ 
SULES WITH CASTOR OIL 
Crystals of carbon trichloride were 
finely powdered in a mortar and ad¬ 
ministered in capsules, this dose being 
immediately preceded or followed by 
1 ounce of castor oil. The number of 
each dog, its weight, and its total dose 
were as follows: Dog No. 680, 7 
kilos, 5 gm.; No. 679, 7 kilos, 6 gm.; 
Nor. 678, 8 kilos, 7 gm.; No. 683, 10.5 
kilos, 8 gm.; No. 682, 9 kilos, 9 gm.; 
No. 681, 9 kilos, 10 gm. The following 
day the finely powdered carbon tri¬ 
chloride was visible in the feces. Dog 
No. 679 passed 1 whipworm the next 
day and 2 whipworms the day after, a 
total of 3 whipworms, and No. 680 
passed a hookworm the day after 
treatment. No other worms were 
passed the fourth day, and on that day 
the dogs were killed and examined post¬ 
mortem. The worms present post¬ 
mortem were as follows: Dog No. 680, 
35 hookworms; No. 679, 24 whip¬ 
worms; No. 678, 5 hookworms, 16 
whipworms; No. 683, 25 hookworms, 75 
whipworms, 1 Dipylidium; No. 682, 1 
hookworm and 1 whipworm; No. 681, 
negative. Dog 679 passed 3 whip¬ 
worms and had 24 left; there were 92 
whipworms left in the other dogs. 
Dog 680 passed 1 hookworm and had 
35 left; there were 31 hookworms left 
in other dogs. This experiment sug¬ 
gests that the finely powdered carbon 
trichloride in the presence of castor oil 
may become slightly effective against 
worms, but it indicates that the chemi¬ 
cal would probably never be of value 
as an anthelmintic. To give this 
feature of oil solubility a more definite 
test, we tried the carbon trichloride 
in oil as follows. 
CARBON TRICHLORIDE DISSOLVED IN 
CASTOR OIL 
One gram of carbon trichloride was 
dissolved in 100 c. c. of castor oil with 
the aid of moderate heat, the solution 
becoming a brownish amber color. The 
entire amount was given by drench to 
dog No. 669. This animal passed no 
worms the next day, passed 7 whip¬ 
worms the next day, none the next 2 
days, and on post-mortem examination 
the fourth day after treatment had 14 
hookworms, 18 whipworms and 40 to 
50 tapeworm heads. The treatment 
appears to have removed 28 per cent of 
the whipworms. While little can be 
concluded from the foregoing experi¬ 
ments as to the effects of oil on the 
availability of the anthelmintic consti¬ 
tuents of the chemical, the results sug¬ 
gest that this highly insoluble drug is 
entirely ineffective and unavailable 
when given alone as coarse crystals; 
that it becomes slightly effective and 
available when given as a fine powder 
accompanied by castor oil; and that it 
becomes still more effective, though by 
no means really valuable, when it is 
dissolved in oil and then administered. 
Since the efficacy of oil of cheno- 
podium for removing worms from dogs 
is fairly well known from large numbers 
of critical experiments, the writers next 
undertook to test the efficacy of carbon 
trichloride dissolved in this oil. The 
oil alone falls distinctly short of 100 
per cent efficacy against hookworms in 
dogs, so that any marked increase in 
efficacy on the part of the mixture 
might be detected and would indicate 
an anthelmintic action on the part of 
the carbon trichloride. 
CARBON TRICHLORIDE DISSOLVED IN 
OIL OF CHE NOP ODIUM 
Six grams of carbon trichloride were 
dissolved in 20 c. c. of oil of cheno- 
podium, without heat, and the dose 
rate for chenopodium for removing 
hookworms was used for the mixture in 
treating 6 dogs. This dose rate is 2 
c. c. for dogs of average size or larger, 
and 1 c. c. for small dogs. Two c. c. 
was given to dogs No. 672 (14 k.) and 
673 (12 k.), and 1 c. c. was given to 
