Abstract
In 1926 we noticed that solutions of phenol-tetra-chlor-phthalein and phenol-tetra-iodo-phthalein are decidedly bactericidal for typhoid bacilli. These dyes, however, when concentrated in the gallbladder of animals after intravenous injection (Abel and Rowntree 1 ) show no bactericidal effect whatever. In simple experiments we found that the bactericidal effect of aqueous solutions of these dyes was due entirely to their alkalinity. As excreted, however, they seem to be in a colloidal state and have no effect on the reaction of the bile.
We wished, therefore, to find out whether it was actually possible to make the bile more alkaline. A Rous fistula 2 was established in a dog, the bile collected and examined daily by potentiometer. It was impossible to produce an appreciable change in the reaction of the 24 hour bile by administration of large doses of sodium bicarbonate by mouth or intravenously, or by intravenous administration of the very alkaline solution of phenol-tetra-chlor-phthalein (pH 9.52). (Protocol I.) There was not even a transient increase in alkalinity of bile after the injections; a specimen collected for 6 hours after an intravenous injection of bicarbonate of soda showed a change toward the alkaline side too small to be of significance.
Recently we became interested in attempts to cure typhoid carriers. Nichols, 3 hoping to cure typhoid carriers, attempted to make the patient's bile more alkaline by administration of large doses of sodium bicarbonate by mouth. (Typhoid bacilli are easily killed by alkaline solutions.) Some favorable results were reported. Krause 4 states that “change of reaction by administration of acids or alkalies has so far given no results”.
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