In previous papers I have discussed the concurrent changes in the output of urine and in the blood and urinary metabolites of animals and edematous patients treated with diuretic drugs.1 The following drugs produced increases in the output of urine and in the chloride content of the blood and urine: sodium bismuth tartrate, theophylline, merbaphen and salyrgan. Bismuth caused the same effects in normal and chloride-saturated rabbits but much less pronounced changes in those deprived of chloride. In edematous patients the increase in the amount of urinary urea and of uric acid after the administration of bismuth paralleled the diuresis, and the concentration of these metabolites, the dilution of the urine. The hemoglobin, sugar, urea and uric acid contents of the blood showed no changes, or only negligible ones, after the administration of bismuth.
The effects on the chloride content during diuresis due to digitalis differed. This drug reduced