Influence of Iodide on Bacterial Decomposition of Nitrogenous Substances

Abstract

The effect of iodides on the nitrogen metabolism of human and animal bodies has been studied by several investigators. Grabfield, Alpers and Prentiss1 reported that there was an increase in the nitrogen excretion from the human body following the ingestion of iodides. Hesse2 found that the influence of potassium iodide was practically the same, either administered parenterally or given by mouth. Boothby and Rowntree3 stated that iodides did not cause any noticeable change in the basal metabolic rate of normal persons. Grabfield and Prentiss4 showed that iodides of sodium, lithium, calcium, potassium, strontium and magnesium had an increasing effect on the nitrogen excretion in the human urine. They' concluded, in their study of the effect of iodides on the nitrogen partition, that the increase did not change the partition of total nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen, uric acid and creatinine in both urine and blood. According to Grabfield, Gray, Flower and Knapp,' sodium iodide injected subcutaneously increased the nitrogen excretion of a normal dog but not of a dog from which the thyroid gland had been removed.