Antipyrin, and Antifebrin on Proteid Metabolism. 53 



Since this work was finished we have seen an interesting paper 

 by Dr. Kiimagawa* on the action of certain antipyretics on proteid 

 metabolism, in which is given the results of an experiment with 

 antipyriu on the excretion of nitrogen and uric acid, in the case of a 

 dog of 26 kilos, weight in a condition of nitrogenous equilibrium. 



In this experiment, Dr. Kumagawa found that even large doses of 

 antipyrin (51 grams in 16 days) produced no change whatever in the 

 excretion of nitrogen (determined by the Kjeldahl method), but that 

 there was a very noticeable increase in the excretion of uric acid 

 (determined by Salkowski's method), amounting on an average to 65 

 per cent, above the noi'mal excretion. These results stand in direct 

 opposition to what we have found with somewhat smaller doses, in 

 experimenting on the human organism. Whether the explanation 

 of this ditference is to be found in the different nature of the two 

 organisms experimented with we cannot now say, but we hope at a 

 later date to explain this apparently divergent action. 



IV. The influence of antifebrin ; — from experiments made by H. C. 



Taylor, Ph.B. 



Antifebrin or acetanilide, which has recently come into use as an 

 antipyretic, as a nervine and antiseptic, has been the subject of many 

 clinical observations but has not as yet, so far as we know, been 

 experimented with to ascertain its influence on proteid metabolism. 

 We have endeavored, therefore, to ascertain the influence of this new 

 antipyretic on the nutrition of the healthy human organism, believing 

 that such results may possibly be of greater value than those ob- 

 tained by experimenting on animals. At the same time it is to be 

 borne in mind, that an antipyretic especially may produce an eftect 

 upon the healthy organism quite different from that which the same 

 doses would produce on an organism rendered perhaps more sus- 

 ceptible by disease, as in fever. The experiment was therefore con- 

 ducted upon the person of a young man of 64 kilos, body weight, 

 brought into a condition of nitrogenous equilibrium and maintained 

 throughout the experiment upon a weighed diet of known composi- 

 tion. For reasons already given, the excretion of nitrogenous matter 

 was measured by determining in the 24 hours' urine the amount of 

 urea and uric acid, using the methods employed in one of the pre- 

 ceding experiments. Sulphur, phosphorus and chlorine Avere also 



*Ueber die Wirkung eiaiger antipyretisclier Mittel auf den Eiweissumsatz im 

 Orgauismus. Virchow's Arcbiv, Band cxiii, p. 192. 



