Abstract
Rapid recovery of rats 1 and monkeys 2 from severe CO effects when they were exposed to relatively small amounts of X-rays, has been previously reported. The X-rayed animals were restored to normal within a few minutes while their controls either died without regaining consciousness or exhibited a slow and laborious recovery.
This report presents the actual CO content of the blood of the treated pairs of rats in a new series of experiments. Albino rats of the Wistar stock were paired to give like ages and weights. Only male rats were employed but previous work has indicated no difference between the sexes in response to X-ray after CO.
Members of a pair were simultaneously exposed to 25% CO in air and removed from the gas chamber when it was judged the limit of toleration had almost been reached. Experiments in which the control rat died from over-exposure to CO were rejected, since it was necessary to analyze the living blood of both members of the pair. Immediately after removal from the gas chamber the animals were placed in glass trays, ventral side up and one, chosen at random, was placed, unscreened, under an X-ray tube delivering 125 r per minute at the target distance used, 10 inches.† Each X-rayed rat was exposed for the same number of minutes that the animals had been left in the CO chamber; usually 6 minutes CO was followed by 6 minutes X-ray, while the control rested in his tray.
Immediately following the X-ray exposure carotid blood from each animal was analyzed with a Hilger-Spekker spectrophotometer and a Hilger medium quartz spectrograph by Dr. Victor Ells, who calculated and evaluated the data obtained.
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