ALBUMINS OR PROTEINS. 253 



artificially administered or normally produced from the food. It is very 

 probable that, under normal conditions, all the conjugated sulphuric acid 

 compounds are the outcome of intestinal putrefaction. The amount of 

 sulphuric acid esters has even been suggested as indicating the extent of 

 putrefaction taking place in the intestines. We may, however, state that 

 a true conception of the putrefactive changes in the intestines cannot be 

 obtained by the determination of sulphuric acid esters alone. Their 

 amount is naturally dependent, first of all, on that of the absorbed products 

 of putrefaction, and the absorption depends on the time the material 

 remains in the intestines. During diarrhea large amounts of putrefactive 

 products are withdrawn from the organism. The quantity in the faeces 

 would also have to be determined. Moreover, only a part of the putre- 

 factive products leave the organism in an unaltered condition. If indole 

 or phenol is administered to the animal organism, it is partially destroyed, 

 or, more correctly expressed, it cannot be detected in the urine, having 

 been evidently transformed in some manner. 



We must also bear in mind that not all the aromatic putrefactive sub- 

 stances appear in the urine in the form of conjugated sulphuric acids, but 

 they are often present as salts, or even in an unaltered condition. We must 

 also remember that the sulphuric acid present is derived from the albumins 

 themselves, and is necessarily limited in amount. It is very probable that 

 larger quantities of glucuronic acid than usual would be obtained in place 

 of the sulphuric acid esters, if albumins, low in sulphur content, were fed 

 to the organism. On the other hand, we must admit the possibility of 

 the organism covering up any such deficit in sulphur by breaking down 

 proteins rich in sulphur from its own tissues, just as well as our present 

 knowledge indicates that, within certain limits, the formation of hippuric 

 acid is independent of the glycocoll in the albumin of the food. As the 

 amount of stored-up sulphur compounds is necessarily small, it follows 

 that the animal organism will soon have to rely upon glucuronic acid 

 when the amount of aromatic putrefactive products exceeds a certain 

 limit. The compounds conjugated with glucuronic acid are naturally 

 not detected in determining the amounts of sulphuric acid esters. 



Baumann assumed that the acid esters of sulphuric acid were produced 

 by the combination of aromatic substances with the sulphuric acid residues 

 which circulated in the body in the form of sulphates. This theory has 

 recently been questioned. Tauber l only succeeded in obtaining an 

 increased amount of phenylsulphuric acid in administering large amounts 

 of phenol only when he introduced sulphites at the same time; while this 

 was not the case with sulphates. It seems, therefore, that the reaction 

 between the aromatic compound and the radical containing sulphur 



1 Tauber: Arch. exp. Path. Pharm. 36, 197 (1895); Z. physiol. Chem. 2, 366 



(1878/89); Habilitationsschrift, 1878. 



