THE INHIBITION OF THE TOXICITY OF URANIUM NITRATE BY SODIUM CARBONATE, AND THE PROTECTION OF THE KIDNEY ACUTELY NEPHROPATHIC FROM URANIUM FROM THE TOXIC ACTION OF AN ANESTHETIC BY SODIUM CARBONATE.
1. The toxicity of uranium in animals of different ages is associated with the power of the metal to lead to the formation of organic acids, as, for instance, diacetic acid and also acetone. 2. The power of sodium carbonate to lessen the toxicity of uranium depends upon its power to delay the formation of such bodies and to cause their appearance in the urine in lessened amounts, and does not depend upon the power of the carbonate to detoxicate the metal. 3. The protection of the kidney by the carbonate, which is shown by the kidney being functionally much more active during an anesthesia than the kidney of a control animal, and by the Jack of fatty degeneration, acute swelling, and necrosis of the renal epithelium which is constantly seen in the unprotected kidneys, is probably dependent upon two factors: the neutralization of organic acids formed prior to and during the anesthesia, and the neutralization of hydrochloric acid which Graham has shown to be liberated by chloroform during an anesthesia induced by this substance.
Laboratory of Pharmacology of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
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Macnider