Abstract
The following experiment was planned to study the effect of adrenalin chloride upon the acidity of the urine, and to determine, if possible, whether the “acidosis” which has been described as one of the results of such injections was due to the respiratory changes which follow the administration of the drug. A normal man (the author) who weighed 165 pounds took a standard simple breakfast on each of four successive days. On each day hourly samples of urine were collected throughout the morning. The collection and determination of the degree of acidity was carried out by the method of Marshall 1 ; other determinations were done as described in previous papers 2 . On the second day of the experiment 1 c.c. of a 1 to 1000 solution of adrenalin chloride (Parke-Davis) was injected subcutaneously into the arm. Samples of blood were collected from the median basilic vein one half hour before and one half, one, and two hours after the injection was given.
The results are given in the tables. Table 1 shows that the subject developed the decrease in the carbon dioxide combining capacity of the plasma described by Peters and Geyelin 3 , and Hubbard and Wright (loc. cit.) as well as a rise in blood sugar. The determinations of the alveolar carbon dioxide tension were not very satisfactory, but they showed a decrease which roughly paralleled the changes in the carbon dioxide combining capacity of the plasma.
Table 2 shows the determination made on the urine on the day when adrenalin was given contrasted with similar determinations on the three control days. The acidity of the urine alone showed any change, and that change was slight. The reaction of the specimen collected from eleven to twelve o'clock after the adrenalin was given showed a more marked increase in acidity (1.2 PH) over the specimen collected during the preceeding hour than did similar specimens on the control days.
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