Abstract
The effects of gum acacia upon the body temperature have been studied in both normal and fevered rabbits and dogs. Solutions were made in water redistilled from glass and given intravenously. In the following experiments upon rabbits 20 c.c. of fluid per kilo were injected unless otherwise stated.
Intravenous injections of control fluids (Locke's solution or physiological saline) gave an increase in temperature of 1° C. or more, subsequent to a brief depression of 0.2° C. This temperature increase could be superimposed upon the rise induced by bactopeptone injections.
Similar amounts of 7 per cent. acacia (also 10 c.c. of 20 per cent.) gave a slight depression in normal rabbits by a few tenths of a degree centigrade, never an increase.
In five bactopeptone rabbits in which the temperature had reached a level of about I° C. or more above normal within 4 or 5 hours, an injection of acacia (7-10 per cent. or 10 C.C. per kilo of 20 per cent.) brought the temperature back to approximately the normal level in 20-40 minutes. A rabbit in which fever was induced by puncture of the corpus striatum gave a very rapid fall (average 1.1° C. in 20 minutes) of temperature on three different days as a result of 7 per cent. acacia injections.
In rabbits, therefore, acacia injections induce a mild temperature depression in health but a marked antipyretic effect in fever.
Four dogs responded to 4 C.C. per kilo of 20 per cent. acacia injected intravenously by increases in body temperature varying from 0.9 to I .8 °C. In one of these, however, a preliminary depression of one half degree was observed. The normal temperature was regained within from 3 to 8 hours after injection.
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