254 Dr. Ronalds o« Sulphur and Phosphorus in Urine. 



In endeavouring to determine the amount of organic matter in 

 the lead precipitate by burning, as likewise in determining the 

 quantity of carbon by an elementary analysis of the same pre- 

 cipitate with oxide of copper, results were obtained which did 

 not agree, and many difficulties arose which it is not necessarj* 

 to state now, but which rendered it absolutely necessary to 

 separate by some means the organic matter from the oxide of 

 lead before submitting it to analysis, and even that we might 

 obtain accurately its quantity. Whilst employed in seeking 

 an accurate mode of separation, Dr. Scherer's paper appeared 

 on the extractive matters of urine*, in which a successful mode 

 of separation is described, and the question at issue answered. 

 Dr. Scherer finds that the extractive or colouring matter of 

 the urine contains a larger quantity of carbon and hydrogen 

 when obtained from persons in whom the normal function of 

 the lungs, of the liver or of the skin is deranged, than when 

 taken from healthy subjects, and that the same excess of carbon 

 passes off by the urine when the diet is more than usually rich 

 in that element. From his paper however it does not appear 

 that the quantity of this extractive or colouring matter passed 

 during a certain space of time has been ascertained, and it 

 strikes me that he assumes the quantity of extractive to be the 

 same in all kinds of urine; this I think requires to be proved 

 before it can be positively affirmed that more carbon and hy- 

 drogen do pass off by the urine in such diseased conditions, as 

 a larger quantity of less highly carbonized extractive matter 

 might compensate for the excess of carbon in the more highly 

 carbonized, supposing the latter to be in less quantity. The 

 relative quantity of these matters, and likewise the relative 

 quantities of urea in a certain amount of urine, must be ac- 

 curately determined before the conclusion can be considered 

 as absolutely proved. 



Whilst engaged with the foregoing researches, it occurred 

 to me that it might not be devoid of interest to the physiologist 

 to know the amount of sulphur which was secreted by the 

 kidneys in an unoxidized state. That urine does contain sul- 

 phur, not in combination as sulphate, is evident from the smell 

 of sulphuretted hydrogen which, mixed with that of ammonia, 

 is evolved from it whilst undergoing spontaneous decomposi- 

 tion, also from the blackening which white lead paint suffers 

 when exposed to the gases arising from putrid urine, and like- 

 wise from the fact, that urine allowed to putrefy in a glass 

 vessel containing oxide of lead as one of its constituents, per- 

 manently blackens the glass. To set the fact beyond doubt, 

 two portions of urine, previously deprived of mucus by acetic 

 * Annalen dcrCliem, und Pharm.,W\\. 180. 



