Abstract |
Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) were exposed to 13 organic chemicals representing five known toxic mechanisms and their ventilatory patterns examined for differential responses related to mechanism. Two quantifiable characteristics of the ventilatory pattern, ventilatory frequency and cough frequency, had diagnostic utility as clinical signs to differentiate chemicals that killed through narcosis from those that killed by other toxic mechanisms. Bluegill were also exposed to 2-chloroethanol and 2,4-pentanedione, chemicals previously considered as narcotic poisons but tested here as unknowns. Ventilatory patterns induced by these chemicals and time to death in LC100 concentrations support current theories that they kill by mechanisms other than narcosis. |