An experimental study of lithium / by Clarence A. Good.

  • Good, Clarence A.
Date:
[1903]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: An experimental study of lithium / by Clarence A. Good. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    14/20 (page 10)
    The cause of this gastro-enteritis is undoubtedly connected with the excretion of the metal through the bowel wall. This action on the bowel is not peculiar to lithium, but is caused by many other sub- stances, among which may be mentioned mercury, arsenic, colchicum, emetine, and aloin. These substances are excreted by the bowel, and also in the urine, aud induce irritation or inflammation at the point excreted. This may be because they collect in larger quantities in the excretory organs, or because they are here freed from some harmless combination in which they have circulated in the tissues. At times the bowels are most affected, and at other times the kidneys suffer most. Lithium salts are slowly excreted by the kidneys and do not seem to cause any appreciable amount of renal irritation. On the contrary, the excretion through the bowel causes marked irritation and inflam- mation. The percentage of lithium salts obtained from the feces in my experiments was always greater in those cases accompanied by marked vomiting and diarrhoea. There are very few cases mentioned in the literature of poisoning from the use of lithium, and it is not generally considered as inducing any deleterious symptoms. Wood, in his text-book of Therapeutics, says he has seen a twenty-grain dose of lithium carbonate produce a severe general prostration in a feeble adult female; and Hare, in his Practical Therapeutics, says: It is worthy of note that in some cases citrated lithium will disorder the stomach and produce vomiting. In a note to the French edition of Garrod on Gout, the statement is made that small doses are readily borne, but doses of thirty to fifty grains of the carbonate give rise, after a few days, to cardialgia and dyspepsia. Rabuteau states that 15 to 30 g. per diem often causes dyspepsia, and even vomiting Climent17 records similar results in his own person, and Althaus18 states that lithiated waters, if taken in large amounts, give rise to sickness and diarrhoea. Kolipinski19 reports two cases of marked tremor foliowi ng the use of lithia tablets. This was also accom- panied by marked general prostration and weakness. The condition disappeared in three or four days. Considering the marked effect of lithium salts on animals, it is surprising that symptoms on the part of the gastro-intestinal tract have not been noticed more frequently. It is not improbable that such symptoms have frequently been noticed, but have not been reported, or have been considered as due to other causes. It might be stated here, however, that lithium is frequently given as the natural lithia waters, which, as shown by the analyses of Harrington,20 Waller,21 and others contain only very small amounts of lithium, many containing none at all. Lithium salts are frequently credited with the possession of diuretic action. To determine whether they possessed any marked diuretic action I made several experiments on rabbits, as follows: Large