Experimental Acute Nephritis: the Elimination of Nitrogen and Chlorides as Compared with That of Phenolsulphonephthalein

1. Uranium and cantharidin, in the smallest doses capable of producing a distinct nephritis, tend to increase the elimination of nitrogen, probably by stimulating tissue katabolism. 2. Uranium, cantharidin, and potassium chromate, in larger doses, impair the power of the kidney to eliminate nitrogen; but this may not be evident unless the animal is on a high nitrogen diet, and the impairment, when due to potassium chromate, may not persist more than a day. 3. Small doses of uranium and of cantharidin cause a transient increase of chloride elimination which corresponds in a general way to the excess of diuresis. 4. Large doses of uranium and of chromate cause a fall, usually transient, in the chloride elimination. The chloride elimination may, however, be diminished forty per cent. for twenty-four hours without evidences of intoxication (vomiting). 5. The anatomic appearance of the kidney varies somewhat with the poison used and greatly with the period of survival after administration of the poison, but bears no definite relation to the nitrogen, chloride, or phenolsulphonephthalein elimination; marked anatomic alteration is compatible with normal elimination of all these substances and with freedom from symptoms of intoxication (vomiting). 6. The decrease in the elimination of phenolsulphonephthalein, which occurs in uranium, chromate, and cantharidin nephritides, and which, in a general way, is proportional to the dose of the poison, bears no constant relation to the changes in the nitrogen or chloride elimination. 7. A marked decrease in the elimination of the phenolsulphonephthalein occurs synchronously, as a rule, with the onset of the symptoms of intoxication (vomiting), and therefore the phenolsulphonephthalein test would seem to be a better indicator of the ability of the kidney to eliminate the toxic substance responsible for the symptoms of renal insufficiency than are either the anatomic changes or the elimination of total nitrogen or of chlorides.