• BRIEF CONTRIBUTIONS TO BIOCHEMISTRY 



Numbers 1-7 



JACOB ROSENBLOOM 

 (Biochemical Laboratory of the Western Pennsylvania Hospital, Pittsburgh, Pa.) 



(Received for publication, December 29, 1914) 



I. Report o£ chemical examination of the brain of a 



luetic fetus 



Through the kindness of Dr. A. L. Garbat and Dr. O. Hensel 

 there was placed at my disposal the brain of a luetic fetus obtained 

 at the sixth month of gestation. It was thought that a chemical ex- 

 amination of this organ would prove of interest on account of the 

 marked changes that this disease causes in the cerebro-spinal System. 



Methods. The desiccation of the material, extraction of the 

 lipins and the chemical analysis were carried out according to the 

 methods described in former papers.^ Phosphorus was estimated 

 by Neumann's^ method (weighed as magnesium pyro-phosphate) ; 

 nitrogen by the Kjeldahl-Gunning method; sulfur by Benedict's^ 

 method, with fuming nitric acid to oxidize before adding the sulfur 

 reagent; calcium and magnesium in the ash by McCrudden's* 

 method. The water content of the brain was estimated by Benedict' s^ 

 method. The cerebro-galactosids were estimated by determining 

 gravimetrically, with Fehling Solution, the amount of galactose split 

 off with dilute hydrochloric acid. 



Table i presents the results obtained in this study, together with 

 certain data found in the literature. 



1 Hanes and Rosenbloom : Jour. Exp. Med., 191 1, xiii, p. 355. Rosenbloom : 

 Jour. Biol. ehem., 1913, xiii, p. 511. 



2 Neumann: Zeit. f. physiol. Chem., 1902, xxxvii, p. 129; 1904, xliii, p. 35. 



3 Benedict : Jour. Biol. Chem., 1909, vi, p. 363. 

 *McCrudden: Ibid., 1911, x, 187. 

 •^Benedict: Amer. Jour. Physiol., 1905, xiii, 309. 



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