Guanidine Retention and Calcium Reserve as Antagonistic Factors in Carbon Tetrachloride and Chloroform Poisoning.

Carbon tetrachloride, even in very large doses, has been shownby Lamson et al. (1) to produce no acute intoxication in dogs on a well balanced mixed diet. A preliminary note from this labortory (2) reported, however, that similar or even very small doses of the drug caused a severe and usually fatal poisoning in dogs on a diet of lean meat without bones. One radical difference in the two diets was the decreased calcium content of the meat diet. It was found that by the addition of simple calcium salts to this ration practically the same tolerance to carbon tetrachloride could be obtained as was reported by Lamson. Furthermore, cases of intoxication could usually be successfully treated by calcium therapy. The present paper enlarges upon the preliminary report and contains a report of further studies carried out in an attempt to explain the r6le played by calcium in furnishing this protection.