The absorption and excretion of ‘minor’ elements by man

Abstract

Using spectrochemical methods of analysis, balance expts. showed that a patient with severe generalised argyria excreted less than 2 mg. of Ag per wk., all of it in the feces. A patient who had received 550 mg. of Au intramusc, excreted 6.7 and 9.1 mg. in 2 successive wks., 78% of it in the urine. Soluble Li salts taken orally by normal persons were rapidly and completely excreted in the urine; but the Li in natural foods was poorly absorbed, only 25% of the Li in a brown-bread diet being excreted in the urine. B taken by mouth as boric acid was rapidly excreted in the urine. B in foods was much more readily absorbed than Li, 92% of it appearing in the urine. Of V, which had been administered intraven. as Na tetravanadate to normal persons in 6 daily doses, 81% was excreted in the urine by the 7th day after the last inj. and 9% was excreted in the feces in the same time.