On the action of antimony compounds in trypanosomiasis in rats: being a report to a sub-committee of the tropical diseases committee of the Royal Society

The near chemical and pharmacological relation of arsenic and antimony suggested naturally the use of the latter in a disease in which the former had proved of value; but the irritant action of the ordinary antimony salts seemed to preclude their use by hypodermic injection. After repeated attempts to form organic compounds of antimony analogous to atoxyl, one of us (C.) submitted to Plimmer and Thomson, for experimental trial, a compound of glycine and antimony, and their results with it showed that antimony possesses trypanocidal properties. This first antimony compound proved difficult to make and unstable, however, and these observers substituted fro it tartar emetic; the results were satisfactory, and the following investigation was undertaken with the object of determining the limits of usefulness of other antimony compounds in these diseases. The experiments were made on rats infected with a strain of Nagana ( T. brucei ) obtained by the kindness of Sir J. McFadyean. This strain was fatal to rats within six days after inoculation, or within three days after trypanosomes appeared in the blood. The inoculation and treatment were carried out at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine. In the use of the heavy metals it is generally recognised that the more readily dissociated compounds are liable to cause more local irritation than others, and where the local action is to be avoided, attempts are made to use compounds which are less immediately dissociated and pass into the general tissues in their original form, there to free the metallic ion compound which is necessary for the desired effect.