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Biomedical subjects

R H Goldsmith

Publications and source records attributed to R H Goldsmith.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Dulcin: a centennial perspective.

The discovery of dulcin, the second synthetic sweetener, has been traced to the work of J. Berlinerblau. Early studies of this sweetener revealed a very effective sweetener that showed toxicity at high doses. Dulcin never achieved great recognition nor usage but was utilized slightly until a long-term study clearly pointed out its toxicity under sustained use with small doses.

Animals

Nutritional status of alcoholics of different socioeconomic class.

Most studies concerning the nutritional status of alcoholics have focused on the indigent alcoholic but programs now increasingly consider the working patient. The role of socioeconomic status in determining nutritional status of the alcoholic is further clarified in this study. One hundred patients from an alcoholic population were studied, 50 with low socioeconomic status and 50 with middle or higher socioeconomic status. The nutritional status of these two different socioeconomic groups was examined and compared. The middle-income alcoholic had significantly higher values in weight to height index (P less than .02), the triceps skinfold (P less than .01), the midarm muscle circumference (P less than .05), hematocrit (P less than .01), and epilation force (P less than .001) than the lower-income alcoholic group. Hair-pulling tension was compared in both groups as an index of protein malnutrition. There was a highly significant difference in the two groups.

Adult

Barbiturate potentiation in mercury poisoning.

Barbiturate potentiation was observed in Japanese quail fed dietary levels of 4, 21, and 24 ppm Hg as methyl mercuric chloride. Gross symptoms of mercury poisoning were not observed until after BP was observed. After the initial increase in BP time was observed in the birds receiving 4 and 12 ppm mercury, there followed a plateau in response until those birds receiving 24 ppm Hg began to show gross symptoms of toxicity and the BP time markedly rose again. Pronounced BP persisted 7 weeks after removal of mercury from the diet reflecting the long biological half-life of mercury as the methyl derivative. Selenium effectively prevented BP after 7 days exposure to toxic levels of methyl mercury chloride. Therefore, results suggest that early toxic effects of mercury can be observed readily by BP and that this environmental contaminant may influence drug activity or increase the sensitivity of the nervous system to sodium pentobarbital.

Animals