The absorption and excretion of carbon tetrachloride in animals and in man.

Abstract

To date, the study of the toxicity of the anthelmintic dose of carbon tetrachloride has been confined to clinical observations, and to pharmacological and pathological findings. These researches have indicated that the damage to the host following the use of this drug is definitely dependent on its absorption from the intestinal tract.

Quantitative chemical methods for the study of absorption and excretion of carbon tetrachloride have been worked out in this laboratory.∗ The details of the methods together with a full report of the results of their application will be published elsewhere at an early date.

By the use of our methods we have been able to throw considerable light on the absorption and subsequent excretion of the anthelmintic dose of the drug in man as well as in animals. In dogs, absorption has been studied following injection of 3 cc. of the drug (the accepted therapeutic dose for dogs and for man) into loops of intestine prepared by tying off duodenum and colon under general anesthesia. The dogs were killed at intervals ranging from one to thirty hours, and the amount of carbon tetrachloride remaining in the gut determined. In this way it was shown that the whole dose is absorbed in 24 to 30 hours. The rate of absorption remains practically constant from beginning to end, though it is somewhat more rapid at first. Absorption thus determined for eighteen dogs gives data for the construction of a remarkably smooth composite curve of absorption. When 50 percent alcohol is added, up to 100 cc., there is no general tendency to increased absorption, When 97 percent alcohol is added, on the other hand, absorption is markedly accelerated during the first few hours. The addition of 10 cc. of saturated magnesium sulphate solution slightly decreases the amount absorbed.

When the expired air of dogs is passed, for absorption, through activated charcoal, a very high percentage of the carbon tetrachloride absorbed from an intestinal loop is shown to be rapidly excreted by the lungs. In one case 96 percent of the amount lost from the gut was so recovered.