The Toxicity of Caffein: An experimental study on different species of animalsSalant, William
Science
The Toxicity of Caffein: An experimental study on different species of animals
Salant, William
Caffeine -- Physiological effect
Moderately large amounts of caffein fed daily to puppies for several
days--in some cases as long as 10 days--induced mild symptoms only. No
cumulative effect was observed in any of the experiments of series C.
There seems to be tolerance of certain functions toward caffein, but no
general tolerance of the body could be obtained in these experiments.
Caffein is apparently less toxic for adult dogs on high than on low
protein diet. In young and growing dogs caffein is somewhat less
toxic when milk, rather than meat, forms the exclusive diet. Some
pathological conditions apparently increase the toxicity of caffein
also in dogs. The symptoms of caffein intoxication observed in young
dogs are in some respects different from those in full grown and older
animals, and resemble those noticed in rabbits.
DISCUSSION OF RESULTS.
It was pointed out at some length in the introduction that the
toxicity of some drugs may not be the same for all forms of life.
This observation was also made by some investigators who experimented
with caffein on different species of animals. Thus Maurel(55) stated
that caffein is twice as toxic for the frog as for the rabbit when
administered by mouth. Fröhner's(26) experiments, on the other hand,
made on domestic animals, failed to show great differences in the
toxicity of caffein. According to this observer, horses seem to be
more susceptible than cattle, goats, and swine, the minimum toxic dose
being the same for all of these, while the resistance of the dog to
caffein is about midway between that of the horse and the other animals
mentioned. It may be remarked, however, that Fröhner made only 13
experiments. That these data are inadequate for the formation of any
conclusions as to the toxicity of caffein is evident since the most
striking effect of caffein observed in the work herein reported was the
comparatively wide range of variation in the resistance of individuals
of the same species to this drug. This was found to be the case even
when the conditions of experimentation were approximately uniform, and
was observed whatever the mode of administration of the drug employed.
The toxicity for different individuals also varied in acute as well
as in chronic intoxication. It is for this reason that the number of
tests employed were often quite large, for no conclusions of any value
could be drawn without averaging the results of a sufficiently large
number of experiments. Furthermore, it is to be borne in mind that the
action of a drug may differ according to the mode of its introduction
into the body and that different species of animals may vary in this
regard. This is especially true of some substances when given by mouth,
the range in toxicity for certain species of animals being much
greater when thus administered than when injected subcutaneously or
intravenously.
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