sumed all the available oxygen, and thus the oxidation of the hydrogen sulphide could not ensue. V. H. V.

Ethereal Hydrogen Sulphates in Morbid Urines. By G. HOPPE-SEYLER (Zeit. physiol. Chem., 12, 1—32).—-Tables are given of the amounts of sulphuric acid combined as sulphates (a) and that combined as ethereal hydrogen sulphates; (b) and the ratio a: b in the urine of patients suffering from a variety of diseases. The details of the chief cases are also given. The general results obtained may, however, be summarised as follows:-Deficient or increased absorption of the normal products of digestion, as in peritonitis, tubercular diseases of the intestine, &c., leads to an increase of ethereal hydrogen sulphates in the urine, as the normal products of digestion undergo putrefactive changes, and these putrefactive products are absorbed from the intestine. In typhoid fever, there is no such increase. Simple constipation also causes no change. Diseases of the stomach in which the food lies in the stomach a long time and then undergoes fermentative changes, always lead to increase of the ethereal hydrogen sulphates. Putrefactive changes outside the alimentary canal, putrid cystitis, putrid abscesses, peritonitis putrida, &c., have the same result; and the result is proportional to the severity of the putrefaction, increased by the retention and diminished by the discharge of putrid matter as, for instance, on opening the abscess. The quantity of the ethereal hydrogen sulphates may, however, be unaltered, if at the same time other products of putrefaction are increased. Such a relation is seen between indoxyl and scatoxyl. In normal human urine, scatoxyl predominates over indoxyl; in peritonitis, the reverse the case. W. D. H.

Determination of Urea and Total Nitrogen excreted hourly in Urine. By E. GLEY and C. RICHET (Compt. rend. Soc. Biol. [8], 4, 377-385).-Hourly determinations of the quantity of urine and the percentage of urea, extractives and total nitrogen contained therein have been made by the authors for four consecutive days. The following are the conclusions::

1. The greatest elimination of water takes place about one hour after a meal; the greatest elimination of urea three to four hours after.

2. The excretion of water and nitrogen is much less during the night than during the day.

3. With the same diet, two persons of different body-weight excrete almost the same amount of nitrogen.

4. The ratio between the excretion of urea, extractives and total nitrogen remains almost constant throughout the 24 hours.

5. The ratio of nitrogen as urea to total nitrogen is about 4 to 5. J. P. L.

A New Pathological Colouring Matter from Urine. By W. LEUBE (Zeit. anal. Chem., 26, 672).—The urine in a case of osteomalacia turned black in the air. Ether took up the colouring matter with red-violet colour, and on evaporation left it as a resinous mass, soluble for the most part in water, and wholly in ether, benzene,

chloroform, and alcohol. Alkalis removed the colouring matter from its ethereal solution, becoming first brown-red and then yellow. Strong hydrochloric acid dissolved the colouring matter unchanged; the colour disappeared on heating. Zinc-dust decolorised the solution; the colour returned on exposure to air. No characteristic absorptionspectrum could be seen. M. J. S.

Urinary Pigments. By L. v. UDRÁNSZKY (Zeit. physiol. Chem., 12, 33-63).-In continuation of this research (see Abstr., 1887, 1135), the first question investigated was what constituent or constituents of normal urine yield these products. Hoppe-Seyler states that humous substances, when heated with potash, yield pyrocatechuic acid, volatile fatty acids, and a non-nitrogenous acid, which are the same products as those derived from the pigment. It was found that the non-nitrogenous residue from the humous substances prepared from normal urine, from diabetic urine, or from a mixture of urea and dextrose, has the same composition. The conclusion is drawn that the dark colour which occurs in urine on treating it with mineral acids is due to a formation of such substances. They are formed by the decomposition of the reducing substance of normal urine, and their quantity stands in a constant relation to the reducing power of the urine. By boiling the urine for at least 18 hours with hydrochloric acid, the complete separation of the humous substances is brought about, and the urine loses its reducing power. The indoxyl compounds in the urine have probably only a very small influence in the formation of these substances. Humous substances containing nitrogen can be formed from carbohydrates in the presence of nascent ammonia. As Thudichum first remarked, there can no longer be any doubt that Proust's fallow resin, Scharling's omichmyl oxide, Heller's nrrhodine, Schunck's indirubin, Scherer's pigment from urine, Harley's urohæmatin, and Marcet's immediate principle, are different expressions for one and the same mixture of substances, namely, of some of the products of decomposition by acids or ferments, under the influence of air or heat of the normal yellow pigment of the urine. The uropithin, uromelamin, and omicholic acid of Thudichum, Heller's nrophæin, and several others can now be put into the same category; it is also possible to go a step further and say that the mother-substance of these artificially prepared pigments is the reducing substance of urine, and the normal yellow colour of urine is due to the change of carbohydrates into humous substances which has commenced inside the body.

The dark colour of the urine of herbivora (horses) depends on the presence of some constituent of the hay; the colour itself is due to a humous substance formed from this material in the fodder.

The dark colour of the urine after the administration of carbolic acid (carboluria) is also due to a similar substance. W. D. H.

Ferments in Human Fæces and in the Contents of Cysts. By R. V. JAKSCH (Zeit. physiol. Chem., 12, 116-129).-The contents of abdominal cysts and ascitic fluid have a diastatic action; the blood and other tissues and fluids of the body have also been described as

having a similar action. The presence of such a ferment in the contents of pancreatic cysts cannot therefore be considered diagnostic. The fæces of children were examined for a similar ferment, and in 30 cases of various diseases, it was found that the fæces themselves, as well as a glycerol extract of them, had a marked diastatic action on starch in most cases. Sugar was tested for by Trommer's, Nylander's, Rubner's, and the phenylhydrazine tests, and abundance was found in 25 cases. In three cases only a small amount of sugar was formed; these were cases of pneumonia, rickets, and acute nephritis respectively; in two cases only (chronic intestinal catarrh and general atrophy respectively) did the ferment appear to be absent. Whether this ferment is derived from the pancreas, or is due to the action of micro-organisms, or is the result of the presence of certain proteïds (Seegen and Kratschmer having shown that egg-albumin, serum-albumin, and caseïn have an amylolytic action, Pflüger's Archiv, 14, 593), is uncertain. Possibly all these factors come into account. A second series of experiments similarly conducted proved the presence of a ferment, which, with one exception, was soluble in glycerol, and which had the power of inverting cane-sugar. This ferment may be derived from the intestinal juice (O. Loew, Pflüger's Archiv, 27, 203; Pavy, Maly's Jahresber., 14, 294). The action is certainly not due to the action of acids in the fæces, as it is present in alkaline fæces also.

Both these ferments are present in healthy fæces, and in adults as 'well as in children. Their absence in cases of disease may be found to be of diagnostic value; but this question, as well as that of the influence of these ferments on food introduced per rectum, must be left until more is known about them. The presence of ferments shows probably that some action more important than the mere absorption of water goes on in the large intestine. W. D. H.

Hæmoglobin Crystals in Septic Diseases. By C. J. BOND (Lancet, 2, 1887, 509–511, 557-560).—If normal human blood is drawn from the finger, placed on a slide, and covered with a coverglass, no crystallisation of the hæmoglobin occurs. If, however, a drop of putrid serum is added, crystallisation occurs in 24 to 48 hours. The blood drawn from the finger of patients suffering from septic poisoning has the same tendency to crystallise without the addition of any serum. In pyæmia, the effect is not so marked; in the blood from the red patches of erysipelas there is the same tendency for crystallisation to occur after removal from the body, whereas this does not occur in blood drawn from other parts of the body; in cancrum oris, which is an emphatically infective process, the same phenomenon is observed; whereas in the common zymotic diseases the blood behaves normally. The presence of sugar in the blood in diabetes, or the nitrogenous substances in uræmia, or the supposed lactic acid in rheumatism, or the bile salts in jaundice, is also not sufficient in itself to cause the crystalline tendency. In Addison's disease and in leucocythemia, the crystalline tendency is well marked, whereas in ordinary anæmia, and often in pernicious anæmia, it is absent. In leucocythæmia the change is evidently connected with the presence of excess of white

corpuscles, or some product of their decomposition; cancer cells, and the cells of other rapidly growing tumours, act similarly to leucocytes in this particular. It is found that in 10 or 12 hours after death in persons who have died from accident, the crystalline tendency is present in the blood removed from the heart, and absent in that removed from the limbs; this is probably because the blood in the heart is within easy reach of the septic gases formed in the intestines.

The larger domestic animals resemble man in the matter of crystallisation of hæmoglobin; but in the seemingly healthy mouse crystallisation occurs readily in the unaltered blood; in the cat there is a similar but not so well marked a tendency, especially in blood drawn from the splenic vein.

The occurrence of this tendency in man under the conditions described above, especially in septic diseases, is supposed to be due to the formation or presence of some ferment produced, either by the growth of bacterial organisms, or as in leucocythæmia, by the disintegration of animal cells; the stages in the change which this ferment works being first a deoxidising action on the hæmoglobin, then its exudation into the serum, and lastly crystallisation.

W. D. H.

Physiological and Therapeutical Action of Hyoscine Hydrochloride. By E. GLEY and P. RONDEAU (Compt. rend. Svc. Biol. [8], 4, 56-57, and 163-164).-Hyoscine hydrochloride and hydrobromide are rapid, powerful, and unirritating mydriatics, acting more rapidly and for a more prolonged period than atropine. One drop of a 1 per cent. solution produces the maximum dilatation and paralysis of accommodation in 8 to 10 minutes.

In the rabbit and dog, the pupil of the other eye is affected, dilatation and temporary paralysis of accommodation occurring. This is not the case in man, so far as the authors' observations go.

If the cervical sympathetic of a rabbit is severed on the same side as the eye treated with the mydriatic, further dilatation of the pupil takes place on stimulating the proximal end of the nerve. The hydrochloride exercises the same effect as atropine on the inhibitory nerves of the heart, and diminishes or even suppresses the secretion of saliva, excitation of the chorda tympani with even strong currents being without effect on the submaxillary gland.

Both the hydrochloride and the hydrobromide act as powerful sedatives. J. P. L.

Sodium Benzenesulphinate as an Antiseptic for Wounds. By E. HECKEL (Compt. rend., 105, 896-898). This compound is readily obtained by dissolving benzoic acid in a concentrated solution of sodium sulphite. It is very soluble in water at the ordinary temperature, and has no injurious effects even in somewhat large doses. It may be applied in the form of a solution containing from 4 to 5 grams per litre. It is more efficient than phenol, and ranks with mercuric salts and iodoform, without having the poisonous properties of the former or the disagreeable smell of the latter. C. H. B.

Naphthol as an Antiseptic Medicine. By C. BOUCHARD (Compt. rend., 105, 702-707).-B-Naphthol has already been used for external application, but has not been administered internally on account of its supposed high toxic power. From its comparative insolubility, however, it is a valuable antiseptic for deep wounds and for internal administration; 1000 c.c. of water dissolve 02 gram; 1000 c.c. of water containing 0.1 per cent. alcohol dissolve 0:33 gram; 1000 c.c. containing 5 per cent. alcohol dissolve 10 gram; 1000 c.c. containing 20 per cent. alcohol dissolve 20 grams. 0:33 gram of B-naphthol in 1000 c.c. of the usual cultivation liquids prevents the development of 11 species of bacteria, including those of anthrax, chicken cholera, and pneumonia, and a weak cultivation of the typhoid bacillus : it also retards the development of the bacillus of tuberculosis. It prevents the fermentation of urine, and the production of putrefaction by fæcal matter. Putrefying organic substances mixed with B-naphthol in the proportion of 0-2 gram per litre cease to putrefy, and soon lose their foetidity.

In order to compare B-naphthol with other antiseptics, the author determined the quantity required to prevent the development of the bacillus which produces pyocyanine. 04 gram of B-naphthol per litre was required, and mercuric iodide was found to have six times the antiseptic power, phenol only one-sixth, creosote one-fourth. Mercuric iodide is, however, a violent poison, whilst ẞ-naphthol may be introduced into the stomach of a rabbit in quantities not exceeding 3.8 grams per kilo. without producing death. Mercuric iodide has 250 times the toxic power. The fatal dose for a man of 65 kilos. would therefore be more than 250 grams, and it is only slightly more poisonous when injected subcutaneously. The poisonous action of B-naphthol is not observed with doses not exceeding 11 gram per kilo. per diem; the injurious effects previously observed must have been largely due to the mode of administration. The following table shows the comparative efficiency of the less poisonous insoluble antiseptics :

Doses per kilo.

Localisation of Barium in the Organism arter Chronic Poisoning with a Barium Salt. By G. LINOSSIER (Compt. rend. Soc. Biol. [8], 4, 122—123).—Neumann has recently shown in the case of rabbits, that after repeated injections of the insoluble sulphate into the veins, barium is to be found in the liver, kidneys, spleen, and spinal cord, but not in the muscles, thymus, and brain.

As the insolubility of the sulphate precludes the question of chronic poisoning, the author has made a similar series of experiments with barium carbonate, prolonging the chronic poisoning for a period of 30 days. He finds on analysis that all organs contain some barium,