542 ABNORMALITIES IN METABOLISM 



eliminated in the urine. ^® This fact has led many to look with favor 

 upon the idea that eclampsia is due to an acid intoxication. Other 

 nitrogenous urinary constituents may also be increased, so that the 

 relative proportion of nitrogen eliminated as urea is often greatly 

 reduced. It is said that the toxicity of the urine, which is high in 

 normal pregnancy, is increased if the kidneys are not impaired, but 

 decreased if their permeability is impaired by nephritis, the character 

 of the toxicity being such as to indicate that it is from substances de- 

 rived by disintegration of proteins (Franz). The proportion of sul- 

 phur eliminated in an unoxidized form, as compared with that 

 eliminated as SO4, is much greater than normal. These findings all 

 indicate that oxidation within the body is impaired. There is more or 

 less retention of chlorides, but there is nothing characteristic in this.^^ 

 In spite of the hepatic lesions of eclampsia the tolerance for levulose 

 was not found impaired by Alsberg.^* 



The nonprotein nitrogen of the blood is but little increased in 

 eclampsia, and not to the extent usually seen in uremia, and it bears 

 no definite relation to the severity of the symptoms (Farr and Wil- 

 liams). ^^ They found from 25 to 72 mg. per 100 c.c. in seven cases. 

 These figures can be reasonably explained as the result of tissue dis- 

 integration rather than renal retention and indicate that the renal 

 changes are the result rather than the cause of the intoxication. 

 Losee and Van Slyke could find no increase of amino-acids or other 

 intermediates of protein destruction in either blood or urine in preg- 

 nancy toxemias,^" their total nonprotein blood nitrogen figures ranging 

 from 25 to 46 mg. Similar results are reported by Slemons,^^ who 

 also found normal amounts of fat, with increased cholesterol and 

 decreased lecithin, and after the convulsions some increase in blood 

 sugar. The uric acid content of the blood is high (5-9 mg.).^- With 

 the observed low blood urea of eclampsia it is difficult to account for 

 Hammett's^^ finding of a high urea content in eclamptic placentas. 

 Macallum describes a high proportion of potassium in the blood in 

 eclampsia. ^^ 



The decrease in the alkalinity of the blood observed by Zangmcister 

 and others has been ascribed to the formation of sarcolactic acid by 

 Zweifel,**^ who failed, however, to find an excess of COo, or to detect 

 oxybutyric acid or oxalic acid in the blood. As to the blood pro- 

 s' See Zweifel and Lockmann, Mlinch. med. Woch., 1906 (53), 297; Cent. f. 

 Gyn., 1909 (33), 847. 



" Zinsser, Zeit. f. Geb., 1912 (70), 200. 



f-* Cent. f. Gyn., 1910 (34), 6. 

 ' s» Amer. Jour. Med. Sci., 1914 (147), .550. 



«" Amer. Jour. Med. Sci., 1917 (153), 94, corroborated by Morse, Bull. Johns 

 Hopkins Hosp., 1917 (28), 199. 



"i Amer. Jour. Obst., 1918 (77), 717. 



82 Slcmonsand Bogert, Jour. Biol. Choni., 1917 (32), 03. 



"Jour. Biol. Choiii., 191S (34), 515. 



•^Arner. Jour. Med. Sci., 1918 (150), 1. 



6» Arch. f. Gyn., 1905 (76), 537. 



