CHAP. II.] INFLUENCE ON 'ETHEREAL* SULPHATES. 169 



converted, in the organism, into indoxyl C H 4 \ijg: - > 



this body enters the urine as indoxyl-sulphuric acid, 

 PTT /C(O.S0 3 H) = 



Similarly, skatol (/3-methyl-indol), a body characterised by a 



/CV/Q(^fj \ _ OTT 

 foetid, foetal odour C 6 EL -\rS_^l-^ > after conversion into skat- 



oxyl, is excreted chiefly, as skatoxyl-sulphuric acid. 



By repeated investigations it has been shewn that when the con- 

 tents of the intestinal canal are disinfected, as by the administration 

 of calomel, naphthalin, /3-naphthol, &c., the excretion of the ethereal 

 sulphates by the kidneys ceases. Resting on the basis of these facts 

 are the investigations, now to be referred to, in which the dis- 

 infecting action of the gastric juice was determined by the estimation 

 of the ethereal sulphates of the urine. 



Wasbutzki 1 determined the ratio of the quantity of sulphuric 

 acid present in the form of ethereal sulphates, to the total quantity 

 of sulphuric acid in the urine, in a series of cases where abnormal 

 fermentations occurred in the stomach. In these cases he also deter- 

 mined the nature and amount of the acids in the gastric juice. He 

 found that the ethereal sulphates were increased in amount in 

 cases of acid fermentations of the contents of the stomach due to 

 bacterial action, the hydrochloric acid of the gastric juice being 

 either absent or in greatly diminished amount. In cases, however, 

 of fermentations due to the developement of torula in the stomach, 

 he found an absence of ethereal sulphates in the urine. In these 

 cases the gastric juice was abnormally acid, and contained an excess 

 of hydrochloric acid. From Wasbutzki's researches, it would appear, 

 however, that large quantities of lactic and butyric acid in the 

 stomach contents may exert the same influence on the putrefactive 

 bacterial processes in the alimentary canal as is normally exerted 

 by hydrochloric acid. 



A. Kast 2 attempted to determine the antiseptic action of the 

 gastric juice by administering such quantities of alkalies to healthy 

 men as sufficed to render their urine neutral or alkaline. He found 

 that under this treatment the ratio of the ethereal sulphuric acid to 

 the total quantity of sulphuric acid excreted was largely increased ; 

 and that whenever the acidity of the gastric juice was more or less 

 diminished, the effect was made obvious in this way. 



1 M. Wasbutzki, ' Ueber den Einfluss von Magengahrungen auf die Fanlnissvor- 

 gange im Darmcanale.' Archivf. experim. Patholog. u. Pharmakol. 



2 A. Kast, ' Ueber die quantitative Bemessung der antiseptischen Leistung des 

 Magensaftes. ' Festschrift z. Eroffnuiig d. Allgem. Krankenhauses zu Hamburg -Eppen- 

 dorf, 1889 (Sep. Abd.). Abstracted by Professor Andreasch, in Maly's Jahresbericht 

 for 1889. Vol. xix. p. 271. 



