The Chloride Content of the Tissues. ∗

In normal animals the chloride content of the blood is maintained at 280-320 mg. percent, even under the conditions of a negative chloride balance. Distilled water, injected intraperitoneally in rabbits rapidly acquires a chloride concentration up to 376 mg. percent and becomes isosmotic 1 Consequently, by the transperitoneal perfusion of distilled water, it is possible to produce an experimental hypochloremia by dialysis. 2 The blood chloride falls and a large amount of chloride, as well as other electrolytes and organic crystalloids, is found in the dialysate. Rabbits thus treated develop muscular fibrillation, tremors and convulsions and die in from 2 to 5 hours. In a series of 13 rabbits so dialyzed, we found an average of 619 mgs., (from 205 to 896 mgs.), of chloride was removed from the animal as determined by analyses of the perfusate. During the corresponding period of dialysis, the average fall in blood chloride was 79 mgs. percent, (from 300 to 221 mgs.). As the blood volume in the rabbits used was empirically about 200 cc., not more than 175 mgs. of the dialyzed chloride could be accounted for as coming from the blood itself. The source of the other 440 odd mgs. of chloride was evidently other body tissues. As a result our attention has been turned to the chloride content of the tissues.

Two of us (C. B. D. and M. E. H.) have recently determined the chlorides in various tissues from the rabbit. As our primary interest at the time lay in the various lipoidal fractions, these analyses were all made upon dried tissues. The animals were killed by bleeding. The desired tissues were quickly removed, cut to shreds and dried in a current of warm air (40°C) for 10 hours.