Abstract
Rhenium, the third homologue of the manganese family, has been known to a few scientists for relatively few years. Although discovered in 1925, it was not obtainable until 1930. The relationship of rhenium to manganese and its chemical similarity to osmium made it appear worthwhile to investigate the physiological effects of the element. The investigation was necessarily limited to a few direct experiments since the material was expensive and available in but small quantities. The rhenium salt used was potassium perrhenate.
In the analysis of the tissues for presence of the element, a quartz prism spectrograph was employed. The rhenium lines were compared with a standard and a rough approximation was possible as to the presence of a trace or a considerable amount.
I. Toxicity studies. A group of 9 mice weighing 15-30 gm. were given intraperitoneal injections of potassium perrhenate in doses corresponding to 0.05-3 mg. of rhenium. All the animals but one recovered within 12 hours. The one fatality occurred immediately following injection and was in all probability due to an accident in injection. The immediate effect of injection was that of water intoxication, since the relative insolubility of the salt demanded the injection of relatively large amounts of solution. This effect was experimentally controlled.
A group of 6 rats were then given intraperitoneal injections in doses equivalent to 2.5-50 mg. of rhenium. No unusual effects were observed in the week following. At the end of the week the rats were each given an injection containing 5 mg. of rhenium, followed by 9 daily injections containing 2.5 mg. of rhenium per injection. One rat weighing 245 gm. received in one injection an equivalent of 50 mg. of rhenium, corresponding to 200 mg. per kilo body weight.
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