Sulphur in Urine. 405 



average is 11.9 per cent. Unfortunately, the data for the third day were 

 secured from only one experiment in which the neutral sulphur was 0.225 gram, 

 or 13.2 per cent of the total sulphur eliminated. On the fourth day, the 

 determinations made in two experiments gave 0.184 and 0.226 gram respect- 

 ively. Expressed in per cents of total sulphur, these weights corresponded to 

 10.2 and 13.7 per cent. On the fifth, sixth, and seventh days, the neutral sul- 

 phur was determined in experiment No. 75 only. The amounts excreted were 

 less than on previous days, being 0.148, 0.171, and 0.139 gram, respectively, 

 these weights corresponding to 8.9, 10.4, and 8.9 per cents of the total sulphur. 

 There is, then, a tendency for the actual weight of neutral sulphur to decrease 

 as the experiment continues, and the per cent of total sulphur represented by 

 the neutral sulphur likewise diminishes. 



The effect of the bile flow on the neutral sulphur has generally been main- 

 tained, since it was believed that the taurin contributed in large measure to 

 the amount of neutral sulphur found in the urine. Luciani (4) maintained 

 that the secretion of bile continued throughout the 30 days of the Florence fast, 

 since from time to time Succi vomited material stained with bile pigments. 

 In common with all other secretions, however, the bile flow must be distinctly 

 diminished and the results obtained in the Middletown experiments might be 

 taken as indicating that there is a relationship between the bile flow and the 

 amount of neutral sulphur, for, as has been pointed out above, not only the 

 total but the relative amount of neutral sulphur persistently diminishes as the 

 fast progresses. This conclusion is, however, distinctly at variance with that 

 drawn from the recent experiments of Shaffer 84 on a woman with a biliary 

 fistula. 



Judged from the standpoint of Folin's theory of protein metabolism, the 

 variations in the amounts of sulphur excreted indicate that there is scarcely 

 any greater disintegration of tissue protein during fasting, than under normal 

 conditions with food. That this view is in marked contrast to the many physical 

 observations made on the size of the liver and other organs, as well as of the 

 muscles, during fasts no longer than some of these recorded here, would lead 

 to the belief that in these organs the actual structure is not necessarily materi- 

 ally drawn upon during fasting, but that the whole organism becomes deprived 

 of its fluid to a considerable extent and hence diminishes in volume. 



While in the paper presenting his views of protein metabolism Folin 85 

 maintained that there was a distinct relation between the neutral sulphur and 

 the endogenous protein katabolism, it is of interest to note that in a subsequent 

 statement 8 " he says that his more recent researches would indicate some 

 relationship between the food ingested and the neutral sulphur. 



M Amer. Journ. Physiol. (1906), 17, p. 340. 



S5 Amer. Journ. Physiol. (1905), 13, p. 117. 



88 Private communication reported by Shaffer, loc. cit., p. 375. 



