I'noitt <Ts or I'l Th'inAci /(>\ \\i) ji:inii:\T \'H()\ 575 



from tliis siil)stiiii('t' iiiidcr ordinary coinlitious. Nesbitt "•' states that 

 twenty tiuics as iiindi iiulok' or skatole as are excreted daily by an 

 adult man may be injected into the ju<rular vein of a dog of four 

 kilos without causing appreciable effects. Richards and Ilowland, 

 liowever, have demonstrated the possibility that defective oxidation of 

 substances of this group nuiy permit of intoxication.^' 



Other Aromatic Compounds. — Skatole seems to accompany indole 

 in small amounts, but ai)pai"ently in no constant quantitative rela- 

 tion. Herter ^^ states that skatole is fonned under entirely different 

 conditions from indole, and that B. coli does not produce skatole. 

 It is not always present in the contents of the large intestines of 

 healthy persons, and seems to be formed later than indole. 



Indole-acetic acid appears in the normal urine in extremely minute 

 quantities, and is increased in the same conditions as skatole. It is 

 the mother substance of urorosein, and can be found in the intestines 

 of patients who show this substance in the urine ( Herter ).^'^ Ross ^*^'^ 

 found indole-acetic acid in the urine in 21 per cent, of normal persons, 

 and in 48 per cent, of dementia precox cases, and obtained evidence in 

 favor of an endogenous origin in two cases studied especially to de- 

 termine this point. 



Phenol ^"^ appears in the urine normally in very minute quantities — 

 from 0.005 to 0.07 grams per day, according to various observers. 

 These figures are undoubtedly too low, for Folin and Denis ^^''^ found 

 the total excretion of phenols to be from 0.2 to 0.4 gm. per day. 

 Much more is undoubtedly formed in the intestines, for but a small 

 fraction of phenol given by mouth (2 to 3 per cent., according to 

 ]\Iunk) appears in the urine as a sulphuric-acid compound; part of 

 the rest is oxidized to hydrochinon and pyrocatechin, CcH^(OH).,, 

 and eliminated as ethereal sulphates. These sulphates, although dis- 

 tinctly toxic, are much less so than the phenol itself (Metchnikoft').^'' 

 (^ontrary to prevailing ideas, Folin and Denis found the greater part 

 of the phenols to be excreted uncombined. The largest quantities are 

 found in the same conditions as indican, except, of course, in ' ' carbolic- 

 acid" poisoning, when the amounts may be so great that practically 

 all the sulphuric acid in the urine is in this organic combination, much 

 of the phenol under these conditions being also combined with gly- 

 curonic acid."'' This pairing is accomplished chiefly in the liver 

 (Dubin). A small amount of urinary phenol maj^ be of endogenous 

 origin.^*'' 



33 .Jour. Exper. :Mcc1., 189!) (4), 5. 



34 See note in Science, 1006 (24), 970. 



3 s Jour. Biol. Chem., 1008 (4), 101; general discussion. 



3« Jour. Biol. Chem., 1008 (4), 253. 



36a Arch. Int. Med., 1013 (12), 112 and 231. 



3Cb Literature given bv Dubin, Jour. Biol. Chem., 1016 (26), 60. 



36c- .Jour. Biol. Chem.."l01,T (22). 300. 



37 Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 1010 (24), 7.')0. 



38 See the oltservations of Wolilgemutli and of Blumentlial (Biochem. Zeit- 

 schrift, 1906 (1). 134), on tlio detoxication of Ivsol and similar poisons. 



38a Moore, Amer. .Jour. Dis. Child., 1917 (13),' 15. 



