ON THE TOXICITY OF SODIUM PERBORATE 301 or control animals. In the tissues of the animals that died during or imme- diately following the SPM injection, there was found capillary dilatation and vascular congestion similar to that seen in animals dying in shock. 4. Oral administration to rabbits: Attempts were made to determine the toxicity of SPM given orally to rabbits. No data could be obtained because of the bloated condition of the stomach result- ing from decomposition of the SPM. Evi- dently, cardiospasm prevented regurgita- tion of the oxygen and the animals died in shock. The stomach of one rabbit ruptured due to the gas pressure, the animal dying soon thereafter. 5. The irritant properties of solutions of SPM: These were determined on the eyes of rabbits after the method of Hirschhorn and Mulinos (7). This method conforms to actual practice, wherein the SPM solution used as cold wave neutralizer may run into the eyes of the subject by virtue of careless ap- plication. The actual concentration, 0.87 per cent of neutralizer was used, corre- sponding to a 0.7 per cent solution of sodium perborate. Because of the lack of irritation of this solution, solutions double and quadruple this strength were used in order to determine the effective strength causing irritation. The results are summarized in Table 3. No miosis resulted. The temporary blepharospasm lasted from 10 to 15 min- utes and was only slightly greater than from the control instillation of' saline. Recovery was complete from the slight irritation shown in Table 3, no after- effects being evident during the week following the instillation.

302 ' JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF COSMETIC CHEMISTS SI•MMARY AND CONCLUSIONS •1. The single dose toxicity of sodium perborate monohydrate (SPM) has been investigated in rats and rabbits orally, and in cats and rabbits intravenously. 2. Up to the limit of solubility of the SPM and the capacity of the stomach (25 cc. per kilo) the chemi- cal proved relatively innocuous. Some hyperemia of the gastric mucosa and occasionally super- ficial ulceration were found on serial autopsy up to 48 hours after ad- ministration of a saturated solution. 3. Intravenously administered to anesthetized cats, there was no ef- fect on blood pressure until deep cyanosis occurred. Given to rab- bits, the I.V. LD50 was 78 mg. per kilo, if given within 5 minutes. 4. No systemic pathological changes were found, except for certain non-specific liver lesions which healed promptly and did not- cause illness or death in rats (oral administration) or accounted for the acutely lethal effect in rabbits (intravenous administration). 5. It is concluded that if the whole pint of the 0.85 per cent solu- tion of SPM used as a neutralizer following a permanent hair Waving application were taken at one time (4.2 gm. of SPM), no dire conse- quences should follow. This con- centration is not irritating to the stomach and the 'total dose of 2.5 gm. of perborate is lower than the toxic dose of 5 to 6 gin. of boric acid in children. REFERENCES (1) Hirschfeld, I., "Vincent's Infection of Mouth," •. ,4m. Dent. ,4ssoc., 21, 768 (1934). (2) Miller, S.C.. Sorrin, S., Greenhut, W. H., and PelzSr, R. H., "Hydrogen Per- oxide and Sodium Perborate: Their Comparative Oral Irritant Action," Ibid., 25, 1957 (1938). (3) The Toni Company, Chicago, Ill. (4) (a) Editorial, "Neutralizers in Home Permanent Waving Kits," y. ,4m. Med. ,4ssoc., 144, 397 (1950). (b) Dunsky, I., "Potassium Bromate Poisoning," ,4m. y. Diseases Children, 80, 730 (1950). (5) Lehr, D., "Stomach Tube Feeding of Small Laboratory Animals," y. Lab. & Clin. Med. 30, 977 (1945). (6) Reed, L. J., and Muench, H., "Simple Method of Estimating 50 Percent End- points," ,4m. y. Hygiene, 27, 493 (1938). (7) Hirschhorn, H., and Mulinos, M. G., "The Pharmacology of Inflammation, I. Technic," Proc. Soc. Exper. Biol. Med., 28, 168 (1930). (8) Editorial, "Boric Acid Poisoning," Lan- cet, I, 216 (1950).