As a result of the present researches, this theory must, however, be modified. The chief observations made are as follows. Chloroform poisoning is followed by an increase of the amount of chlorine in the urine (see Abstr., 1887, 612), and this is accompanied by the presence of abundance of biliary colouring matter in that secretion. In chronie chloroform poisoning, the total metabolism that ensues is diminished, and the animal gains weight. Starvation in animals previously deprived of chlorides produces an increase in the chlorides excreted (Forster). The Removal of blood from a dog produced a considerable diminution of the chlorides excreted for the four days following the venesection. The diet of the animal in this and similar experiments was constant. This coincides with what is known clinically with regard to the diminution of chlorides in the urine after hæmorrhages in man. influence of carbonic oxide was next investigated; in normal animals, and in those who have been previously saturated with a large excess of chlorides in the diet, carbonic oxide poisoning was followed by lessening of the chlorides excreted; whilst in those which had been previously deprived of chlorides, it produced an increase of the total chlorides of the urine. The minimum of chlorides in the first case was reached a few days after the poisoning; and the less chlorides in the urine the more strongly did that secretion reduce Fehling's solution. If Forster's explanation of the excretion of chlorides is correct, it must also be supposed that under certain conditions the reverse is also true; namely, that the " "organ-albumin " contains more salt than the "circulating-albumin." Phosphorus poisoning was found to produce abundant destruction of proteïd with rise of the daily nitrogen in the urine, but a diminished quantity of chlorides. In view of the appearance of biliary colouring matter in the urine of chloroform narcosis, it was thought possible that some relation might exist between the destruction of red corpuscles and the amount of chlorides in the urine. Bunge (Zeit. Biol., 12, 191) has shown that sodium chloride is a constant constituent of red blood corpuscles. With a view to testing this opinion, pyrogallol was administered to dogs; this produced blood-tinted urine, albuminuria, and greatly increased chlorides in the urine; this corresponds with the destructive influence of this drug on the red corpuscles. The administration of toluylenediamine produces similar result, but is more trustworthy as it produces no albuminuria. Albuminuria in Bright's disease is, however, not necessarily associated with an increased discharge of chlorides. The conclusion is therefore drawn that there are two distinct factors concerned in regulating or altering the amount of chlorides in the urine; first, proteid metabolism, to which the output of chlorides is usually in the inverse ratio, and secondly, disintegration of red blood corpuscles, to which it stands in a direct ratio. That when, moreover, the two processes occur simultaneously, the final result depends on which of them it is which preponderates. W. D. H. Fate of Pyridine in the Organism. By O. DE CONINCK (Compt. rend. Soc. Biol., 4, 755-756).-His (Archiv Expt. Path. Pharm., 22, 253) states that pyridine acetate when given by the stomach to dogs does not pass through unchanged, but appears in the urine as picoline, CH-N, of which he prepared the platinochloride and aurochloride. This is contrary to the author's experience. In a series of experiments which he made in conjunction with Bochefontaine in 1884 with the hydrochloride, pyridine was always secreted unchanged, at least the greater part, in urine, saliva, and breath. The discrepancy might possibly be explained by assuming the addition of a CH-group to the pyridine molecule as a result of the decomposition of the acetate in the body. J. P. L. Nutritive Value of Vegetable Proteïds compared with that of Animal Proteïds. By J. RUTGERS (Zeit. Biol., 24, 351-381).— These experiments were carried out in human beings. Tables are given of the diets employed, at one time containing animal food, at another being an almost exclusively vegetable diet. In all the constituents of the food, the nitrogen, fat, extractives free from nitrogen, sugar, and alcohol were estimated; and the urine and fæces were daily examined, the nitrogen especially being estimated; simultaneous observations were made on the body-weight. The conclusions that are drawn from the results obtained may be thus summarised : Vegetable proteïds containing an equal amount of nitrogen can be substituted for the animal proteïds which were used without the nitrogenous balance of the body being disturbed. Beans and peas load the intestinal tract very much, both in respect of their solid constituents and of the gases formed from them; meat and rice have not this disadvantage. This and other contra-indications of a similar nature would render an exclusively vegetable diet undesirable. The acidity of the stomach and also that of the urine is much smaller when the diet is exclusively vegetable than when a mixed diet is taken. Milk, if it is not taken as the exclusive means of nutrition, is in adults also very completely digested. The questions of the difference in cost of the two diets was found to be regulated only by the cost of heating the oven. The mean values given by Moleschott as the daily amount of nutriment necessary were not found to be too low for the climate in which the experiments were carried out (Holland). Kjeldahl's method of estimating nitrogen was found to be the best not only for urine and milk, but for fæces also. The method of Pflüger and Bohland for estimating quickly and approximately the nitrogen in human urine yields, especially when the urine is rich in urea, better results than the improved Liebig's method. W. D. H. By Cellulose in the Nutrition of Herbivorous Animals. W. v. KNIERIEM (Zeit. Biol., 24, 293-305).-In a paper by Weiske and others (Abstr., 1886, 728), the conclusion was drawn that cellulose does not economise the decomposition of proteïd, which was precisely the opposite conclusion to that which v. Knieriem, from his former experiments, arrived at (Abstr., 1885, 916). The present paper takes up the subject again, the author reiterating his former views, and criticising the methods, results, and conclusions of Weiske. W. D. H. Physiolgical Action of Albumoses and Peptones. By R. NEUMEISTER (Zeit. Biol., 24, 272-292).-The fate of the products of digestion of proteïds has been the subject of researches by Maly, by Plósz and Gyergyai, by Adamkiewicz and others. SchmidtMülheim (du Bois Reymond's Archiv, 1880, 33) thought that the products of digestion were absorbed as such, and in the blood became quickly transformed into albumin. An injection of so-called peptone (really albumoses and peptones) into the circulation, vanished as such in a few minutes, and was not observed in the urine; this did not occur when peptone" was mixed with shed blood. After abundance of proteid food, small quantities of "peptone" were found in the circulating blood. Hofmeister (Zeit. physiol. Chem., 1881, 127) found, on the other hand, that injection of "peptone" into the circulating blood was followed by its rapid disappearance from the blood and appearance in the urine. But it as quickly disappears if the quantity injected is sufficient to so lower the blood pressure as to suppress the secretion of urine altogether. He considers that it collects in certain organs, liver, kidneys, &c., under these circumstances. He was able sometimes to discover peptone in the circulating blood during digestion, but supposes that ordinarily it enters into combination with the white blood corpuscles and so escapes detection. In the present paper it is shown that the methods used by the investigators just quoted, for the identification of peptones is untrustworthy; the method of heating, after acidifying to remove other proteïds, and then calling the still soluble proteïd, "peptone," if it gives the biuret action, is a method which in reality leads to the formation of small quantities of primary albumose, as heating with acid is one means of obtaining these hydration products of proteïds. Milk is taken as an example of a substance in which such artificial products have been described under the name of peptone, hemialbumose, lactoproteïn, &c., by various observers as normal constituents of that secretion. Pus also, which is generally said to contain peptone, was found by improved methods to contain none. These improved methods are as follows First, the liquid is precipitated by alcohol; the proteïd precipitate is allowed to remain under absolute alcohol for some weeks, by which time all proteïds but albumoses and peptones are rendered insoluble; the albumoses and peptones can then be removed by extracting the precipitate with water, and identified in solution by their characteristic tests. Peptone and one form of deutero-albumose could be identified in the blood by first receiving it into a solution of ammonium sulphate to prevent coagulation; then dissolving the corpuscles by adding ether; removing the ether; and saturating with ammonium sulphate and filtering; the filtrate would contain deutero-albumose and peptone if present. The lymph, urine, and other fluids can be similarly investigated. It was found that peptones or albumoses never (or only in the merest traces) occurred in the blood or lymph, even when the most energetic digestion of proteïds was going on in the alimentary canal. It was found that injection of albumoses or peptones or both into the circulation was followed by their rapid and complete disappearance therefrom and appearance in the urine within 10 minutes, both in the dog and rabbit; but they also disappear when the ureters are tied. There was no rise of temperature as described by Ott and Collmar (Med. News, 1887, February 19). In the dog, it was found that the albumoses, after the injection, underwent hydration before they appeared in the urine; the primary albumoses appearing mostly as deutero-albumoses, and the deutero-albumoses as peptones. This occurred in the urine when it was acid, neutral, or alkaline, and could not be due to digestion by the pepsin contained in the urine, when the latter remained in the bladder. Albumoses even when mixed with acid urine underwent no such change; the large percentage of salts present, and the fact that the acidity is not due to free acid would prevent this. Contact of the albumoses with freshlydrawn blood, or with fresh organs such as liver or kidney, also caused no change in them. The view is advanced that they are digested by the pepsin secreted by the kidneys in the urinary tubules where there is momentarily a formation of free acid. In the rabbit, no such change occurs; the urine contains no pepsin in this animal, and the albumoses injected into the circulation are secreted as such. W. D. H. Physiological Action of the Products of Incomplete Combustion of Illuminating Gas. By N. GRÉHANT (Compt. rend. Soc. Biol., 4, 779-780).-To determine the action of the products of the incomplete combustion of illuminating gas, a dog was placed for two hours in a chamber of 12 cubic metres' capacity, in which a Bunsen burner burning at the bottom was also placed. A comparison of the gases of the blood taken from the carotid artery, before and after the experiment, showed that the oxygen of the original blood was almost wholly displaced by carbonic oxide. J. P. L. Action of Ethylene Chloride on the Cornea. By R. DUBOIS and P. Roux (Compt. rend. Soc. Biol., 4, 584-585).—With the object of establishing some relation between chemical constitution and physiological action, the authors have commenced the study of the chlorine-derivatives of ethane, many of which possess anaesthetic properties. The first compound they have experimented with is ethylene chloride, which is found to have a remarkable action on the cornea. If a dog is anesthetised for one hour by inhalation of ethylene chloride, or if the compound is injected subcutaneously, both corneas, especially if the anesthetising is repeated after the lapse of 24 to 36 hours, become opalescent and of a bluish-white tint, which give to the animal a strange appearance, the curves of the cornea become especially exaggerated in the vertical meridian, where it is easy to show astigmatism. The bluish-white tint and the abnormal prominence of the cornea recall a double symmetrical opaque anterior staphyloma. This experimental lesion is permanent. Operation for glaucoma was successfully performed on one of the animals; the eye operated on remaining transparent whilst the other became opaque; the cornea is the only part of the eye which appears to be affected. VOL. LIV. J. P. L. 2 m Pigments of Melanotic Sarcomata. By K. A. H. MÖRNER (Zeit. physiol. Chem., 12, 229-240).-Nencki (Arch. exp. Pathol. Pharm., 24, 27) has criticised the previous publication of the author on this subject (Abstr., 1887, 168). The present reply to this criticism points out that in the previous paper it is distinctly stated that the analyses given refer to two different pigments, one soluble and the other insoluble in acetic acid, and not to one only as Nencki has supposed. The author also shows that in Nencki's analyses very great differences occur, and that in some cases the percentages are incorrectly calculated. W. D. H. Therapeutic Substitutes for Chrysarobin. By C. LIEBERMANN (Ber., 21, 447-452).-The analogy of the leuco-derivatives of the anthraquinone-dyes (this vol., p. 492) to chrysarobin, the active principle of Goa powder, suggested that the therapeutic action would be similar. This has proved to be the case, as it is found that they will also cure those skin diseases for which chrysarobin is at present employed. They are, therefore, being made on the commercial scale. under the name of "anthrarobins; " the term anthrarobin being more particularly applied to the reduction product from commercial alizarin. The reduction on the large scale is best effected by means of zinc-dust and ammonia. The activity of anthrarobin is reported to be about equal to that of chrysarobin, but more intense than that of pyrogallol; anthrarobin has the advantage that it does not produce inflammation of the skin. The author is inclined to attribute the therapeutical activity of both chrysarobin and the anthrarobins to their great affinity for oxygen. A. J. G. Urea and Total Nitrogen in Human Urine. By W. CAMERER (Zeit. Biol., 24, 306-317).-Of every 100 grams of nitrogen obtained from urine, 90 are on the average derived from urea and ammonia; and the remaining 10 from other nitrogenous constituents called extractives. The object of this research was to determine the relation between these two sources of nitrogen under certain conditions. The total nitrogen was estimated by the Varrentrapp-Will method, and the nitrogen from urea by Hüfner's hypobromite method; the small amount of nitrogen yielded by uric acid and creatinine on treating urine with hypobromite was not taken into account, so that the percentage differences in the tables given are a little too small. For 15 days, the total urine in each 24 hours was collected, its quantity measured, its specific gravity taken, and the nitrogen in it estimated by the two methods. The average of the results of the 15 days, the average of those of the seven of the 15 days when the total percentage of nitrogen was above the average, and the average of those of the remaining eight days when it was below the average, are given in the following table :— |
