BAYER 205 and Antrypol, besides having very high curative effects in trypanosomiasis, have been shown to possess marked prophylactic or preventive properties as far as this disease is concerned. Although the in vivo trypanocidal action of these drugs has not yet been fully explained, it seems probable that their prolonged prophylactic action is due to the fact that they are retained in the blood and probably in the tissues for some considerable time after injection. It seems desirable, therefore, that more information should be obtained about the "metabolism" of these drugs in the body. At a conference on Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis (Animal and Human) Research held at Entebbe a few years ago [Report, 1934] the view was expressed "that it was important that the question of the rapidity of excretion of Bayer 205 from the body should be investigated " and "it was recommended that the Medical Research Council should be approached with a request to work on this problem". The Medical Research Council having taken up the matter accordingly, it was at their request that the experiments described in this paper were made.The first essential was an accurate method for the determination of Bayer 205 in plasma, and if possible, in other body fluids, and after much search, the method described in the first part of this paper was devised. This method gives satisfactory results with plasma, but considerable difficulties were encountered when attempts were made to apply it to urine. Various modifications for the urine determinations have been tried and although some are quite promising, it is not possible as yet to place any great reliance on the results obtained. The present report will therefore be confined to the problem of the retention of Bayer 205, and the mode of elimination will be left to a future date. These early investigations have been made on small animals (rabbits and dogs), but similar experiments are being carried out with man as the experimental animal. At the same time efforts are being made to determine the minimum plasma Bayer 205 level which will prevent infection when various strains of trypanosomes are injected into small animals.
1. A group of rats has been fed on a poor human dietary supplemented with milk and green food. A further group has been given the same dietary supplemented with Ca and P as salts, equivalent in amount to that present in the milk and green food. The experiment has been continued over three generations.2. The diet supplemented with Ca and P salts has been found to be as effective as that containing milk and green food in promoting reproduction, calcification and tooth formation; it has induced growth as effectively in the first generation of rats but is unable to maintain this growth rate as effectively over several generations. It is obvious that Ca and P are of the chief deficiencies in the poor diet. The addition of these elements greatly increases the nutritive value of this diet, but they are inferior in this respect to milk and green food supplements.3. Under conditions of Ca and P lack, tooth formation is much less adversely affected than is skeletal ossification.
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