PHOSPHOROUS SUBSTANCES OF THE CELL. 147 



chiefly" due to the larger or smaller quantity of alloxur- 

 holding bodies absorbed from the food : chiefly, but not 

 wholly, for there are other influencing conditions the effects 

 of which have yet to be worked out ". 



According to Horbaczewski, the production of uric 

 acid after the ingestion of nucleins is not derived from 

 the alloxur-bodies taken, but rather depends upon the 

 leucocytosis which they induce, i.e., that it is produced 

 chiefly from the nuclein of the leucocytes as they break 

 down. Thus he points out that the amount of uric acid 

 excreted varies directly with the degree of leucocytosis 

 which had immediately preceded it, so that a direct rela- 

 tion between the two seems to be definitely determined. 

 Mares, 1 however, objects to this view that it is by no 

 means proved that the uric acid results from disintegra- 

 tion of the leucocytes, but rather that it may arise from the 

 metabolism or increase in rate of formation of the cells. 



PHOSPHOCARNIC ACID. 



In some respects allied to the nucleins is a phosphorus- 

 containing acid obtained by Siegfried 2 from muscle and 

 named by him phosphocarnic acid. This is contained in 

 the watery extract from muscle and is obtained from it by 

 first precipitating the phosphates by calcium chloride and 

 ammonia, and then, while boiling, ferric chloride is gradually 

 added, the reaction during this stage being kept weakly acid. 

 In this way the iron salt of phosphocarnic acid, carniferrin, 

 is precipitated and the constancy of the analyses of several 

 preparations both of carniferrin and the free acid prepared 

 from it proves that we are dealing with one body only, 

 which is of constant composition. By boiling with dilute 

 mineral acids phosphocarnic acid is split up into a carbohy- 

 drate which reduces Fehling's solution, carbonic, succinic, 

 paralactic and phosphoric acids and in addition a new acid 

 called carnic acid. The nature of the carbohydrate has 



1 Mares : Wien. Sitzungsber, Bd. 101, Abthg. iii., 1892. 

 2 Siegfried: Ber. d. d. Chem. Ges., Bd. 28, S. 515, 1895 ; and Ztschr. 

 f. physiol. (hem., Bd. 21, S. 360, 1896. 



II 



