CHANGES IN THE MATERNAL ORGANISM 507 



explains it by his hypothesis of the presence of placental con- 

 stituents in the maternal circulation. Metabolic investigations 

 in pregnancy complicated by albuminuria show nothing charac- 

 teristic (Magnus-Levy 1 ). 



A special constituent of the urine may be found during The~ 

 puerperium. Though called peptone (Fischel 2 ), it really con- 

 sists of deutero-albumoses which arise from the involution, 

 i.e. autolysis, of the uterus (Langstein and Neubauer 3 ). As with 

 similar proteins introduced subcutaneously, the organism has 

 not the power of splitting them up, and they are excreted un- 

 changed. Fischel stated that peptonuria might also occur in 

 pregnancy ; but this was disproved by Thomson, 4 who also 

 showed that a puerperal peptonuria did not regularly exist. 

 Ehrstrom 5 regards it as a certain indication of fever and sepsis, 

 the peptone being contained in the leucocytes of the purulent 

 lochia. 



As a result of the involution of the uterus, creatin may also 

 appear in the urine. Murlin 6 kept a dog on a creatin-free diet 

 during the last week of pregnancy. The creatinin output was 

 constant, but creatin appeared two days before parturition. 

 It reached a maximum five days after labour the period when 

 the involution processes reach their height. 



D. The Carbohydrate Metabolism in Pregnancy 



a. The Absorption of Carbohydrates by the Mother. The 

 starch digestion is said to be retarded in the stomach during 

 pregnancy (Kehrer 7 ). Little is known regarding the absorp- 

 tion of carbohydrates, but there is evidence of a tendency to 



1 Magnus-Levy, see v. Noorden, loc. cit. 



2 Fischel, " Peptongehalt der Lochien,"Arch.f. Gyndk., vols.xxiv. andxxvi. 



3 Langstein and Neubauer, " Autolyse des puerperalen Uterus," Munch, 

 med. Woch., 1902. 



4 Thomson (H.), " Ueber Peptonurie in der Schwangerschaft und im 

 Wochenbett," Deutsche med. Woch., 1889. 



5 Ehrstrom, "Puerperale Peptonurie," Arch. f. Gyndk., vol. Ixiii., 1901. 



6 Murlin, "Protein Metabolism in Development," Amer. Journ. of Phys., 

 vol. xxiii., 1908-9. 



7 Kehrer, Die physiologischen und pathologischen Beziehungen der 

 Weiblichen Sexualorgane zum Tractus Intestinalis, Berlin, 1905. 



