176 PATHOLOGY OF PURIN METABOLISM 



Uric Acid Retention. 'Umber has observed that gouty 

 individuals may at times retain all of a given amount of uric 

 acid which has been injected intravenously, at times may 

 excrete it in small fractions ; while a normal individual un- 

 der similar circumstances eliminates it completely. 10 (Simi- 

 lar retention has been met only in individuals suffering from 

 chronic lead poisoning and pronounced alcoholism, condi- 

 tions which if not allied to gout are certainly allied to a 

 disposition toward gout.) A positive statement like this is 

 surely of more force than the negative results of v. Benc- 

 zur, 11 who, after intramuscular injection of uric acid in a 

 gouty case, found that it appeared promptly in the urine. 

 Apparently, too, an individual with renal disease excretes 

 his uric acid better on the whole than does a gouty subject 

 with sound kidneys. 12 Observations like those of Schmoll, 

 Magnus-Levy, Vogt, Eeach 13 and Bloch, 14 who state that 

 after feeding thymus to gouty persons they found far less 

 uric acid in the urine than in case of normal persons, seem 

 to have practically but a single meaning ; and the acute out- 

 bursts of the disease, which were repeatedly brought on by 

 feeding thymus in cases of chronic gout, and undoubtedly 

 are to be thought of as experiments having identical bearing, 

 are especially impressive. 



Affinity of the Tissues for Uric Acid. If the kidneys 

 are not to be looked upon as responsible for the scanti- 

 ness of purin excretion in gout, search must be made else- 

 where. The author believes Umber is correct when he 

 states that an increased affinity of the tissues for uric* 



10 F. Umber and H. Retzlaff (Altona), 27th Congress of Internists, Wies- 

 baden, 1910, p. 436. 



11 Gr. v. Benczur (Sec. Med. Clinic, Berlin), Zeitschr. f. exper. Pathol., 7, 

 339, 1909. 



"Cf. Tollens, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 53, 164, 1904. 

 13 F. Reach (F. v. Miiller's Clinic, Basel), Miinchener med. Wochenschr., 

 1902, No. 29 ; vide there Literature. 



14 B. Bloch (Med. Clinic, Basel), Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 51, 473, 1907. 



