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THE NEW YORK JOURNAL OF PHARMACY 



considerable experimentation, arrives at 

 conclusions differing materially from 

 those of Schmiz. He states that he has 

 had numerous samples of urine contain- 

 ing both albumin and hexamethylente- 

 tramin, or allied bodies under observa- 

 tion, and that he has found no difficulty 

 in determining accurately the quantity of 

 albumin contained in such samples by 

 the Eschbach method. 



All determinations were made in the 

 standard Eschbach tube and with the 

 standard reagent in exact accordance 

 with directions. 



Pfau states that it is highly improbable 

 that the urine of patients having taken 

 urotropin or other similar bodies, will 

 contain more than 0.3% of these. Such 

 drugs are generally given in ^4 to i 

 gramme doses, repeated three times a 

 day, and, of course, are not completely 

 eliminated. Pfau claims that not more 

 than ^ of the amount of drug ingested 

 is eliminated in the form of decompo- 

 sition products. Again this amount is 

 not eliminated necessarily during anv 

 given 24 hours. Under the least favor- 

 able circumstances therefore not more 

 than 0.3% of hexamethylentetramin, or 

 its decomposition products will be found 

 in the urine. 



Urine, free from albumin, fails to re- 

 act entirely with Eschbach 's reagent, 

 when it contains about 0.3% of such de- 

 composition products, as is shown by the 

 following experiments : 



Sample i, containing 0.1% of hexame- 

 thylentetramin remained perfectly clear 

 with Eschbach's reagent, even after pro- 

 longed contact. 



Sample 2, containing 0.3% of hexame- 

 thylentetramin, remains perfectly clear. 

 After contact of 12 hours, a scant crys- 



talline precipitate was noted. This con- 

 sisted of uric acid. 



Sample 3, containing 0.5% of hexame- 

 thvlentetramin, behaved same as sample 

 2, excepting that the crystalline precipi- 

 tate formed after a contact of only 3 

 hours. 



Sample 4, containing 1% of hexame- 

 thylentetramin, a quantity verv unlikely 

 to be found in practice, remained per- 

 fectly clear when first mixed with Esch- 

 bach's reagent. After a period of five 

 minutes, however, yellow needle-shaped 

 crystals appeared. These sank rapidly 

 to the bottom of the tube. From time to 

 time a further crop of these needles ap- 

 peared. At no time did these needle- 

 shaped crystals resemble material which 

 separates when an albumin urine is 

 brought into contact with Eschbach's re- 

 agent. 



The experiments were further con- 

 tinued with samples of albumin urine, 

 containing hexamethylentetramin, as fol- 

 lows : 



1. Sample containing 0.1% of albumin 

 and the same amount of hexamethylen- 

 tetramin. 



2. Sample containing 0.1% of albumin 

 and 0.15% of hexamethylentetramin. 



3. Sample containing o.i % of albu- 

 min and 0.3% of hexamethylentetramin. 



4. Control sample, containing only 

 0.1% of albumin. 



Upon addition of Eschbach's reagent 

 to each of the four samples, an imme- 

 diate separation of the albumin through- 

 out the entire volume of the liquid took 

 place. In each sample the quantity of 

 albumin found corresponded to 0.1%, the 

 quantity which had been added to the- 

 sample. 



