COMPOSITION OF PUS 271 



show no considerable deviation from the composition of blood plasma, 

 except in an increased proportion of fatty matter and extractive 

 substances. 



Table II 



Quantitative composition Plasma 



of pus scrum normal 



I II III 



Water 913.7 905.65 908.4 



Solids 86.3 94.35 91.6 



Proteins 63.23 77.21 77.6 



Lecithin 1.50 0.561 



Fat . 26 . 29 [ 1.2 



Cholesterol 0.53 0.87 1 



Alcohol extractives 1.52 0.73\ 



Water extractives 11.53 6.92/ 4.0 



Inorganic salts 7 . 73 7 . 77 8.1 



Quantitatively the chief abnormal constituent of pus serum is the 

 so-called "p^jin" of the older writers, which is nucleoprotein de- 

 rived from the decomposing leucocytes, and hence increasing in 

 amount progressively with the age of the pus;^^ it is characterized by 

 its insolubility in acetic acid. The same substance is found more 

 abundantly in the entire pus, on account of the presence of the cells, 

 and when treated with 10 per cent. NaCl solution it forms a stringy 

 mass which was formerly called "Rovida's hyalin substance." Glu- 

 cothionic acid, derived from the leucocytes, is also present in pus.^^ 

 In the pus serum are found all the other constituents of the. leuco- 

 cytes, including particularly lecithin, cholesterol, fats (and soaps), 

 cerebrin, "jecorin," and glycogen; and also the usual components of 

 the blood-serum as well as some small quantities of pigment derived 

 from decomposed red corpuscles. 



The products of autolysis are of particular interest, and they are 

 found in varying amount, but usually less abundantly than might be 

 expected, probably because of their solubility and consequent rapid 

 absorption. Albumoses and peptones seem to be constantly present 

 (Shattock).^^ The common occurrence of albumosuria during sup- 

 puration presumably depends on the absorption of digestion products 

 from the pus,^^ but true peptone has not been satisfactorilj- identified 

 in the urine. Leucine and tyrosine have also frequentlj^ been found 

 in pus,^^ but Taylor^ could find no workable traces of either monoam- 



56 Strada, Biochem. Zeit., 1909 (16), 193. 



5« Mandel and Levene, Biochem. Zeit., 1907 (4), 78. 



" Trans. London Path. Soc, 1892 (43), 225. 



°^ Literature on albumosuria, see Yarrow, Amer. Med., 1903 (5), 452; Elmer, 

 ibid., 1906 (11), 169; Senator, International Climes, 1905 (IV), series 14, p. 85. 

 See also "Albumosuria," Chap. xxi. 



" Miiller (Cent. inn. Med., 1907 (28), 297) recommends the tyrosine reaction 

 with MiUon's reagent as a means of dififerentiating tuberculous from ordinary 

 pus, the former not giving the reaction because of lack of leucocytic enzymes; 

 but there is disagreement as to the constancy of this reaction in pus (Dold, Deut. 

 mod. Woch., 1908 (34), 869). 



1 Univ. of California Publications (Pathol.), 1904 (1), 46. 



