ON eck's fistula 17 



March when it was considerably higher. This was the day on which 

 ammonium carbonate was given, and on which there was a marked 

 diuresis. The result agrees with those of Burian and Schur * on normal 

 dogs, and may possibly be explained in the same way as they explain 

 theirs ; that the circulation through the kidneys had been rendered more 

 rapid so that more purin was excreted into the urine before it had time 

 to be destroyed in the liver and other purin-destroying organs. 



It is further of interest to note that the purin excretion was not 

 much higher than normal. 



In dogs weighing about twenty pounds the average daily excretion of 

 purin-nitrogen was found by Burian and Schur to be about 0*035 S^- 

 Omitting No. 7 in our table, the average for the Eck's fistula dog is 0*039 

 gr. In Burian and Schur's dogs a flesh diet was given, in ours a variable 

 diet. The figures are therefore not strictly comparable. 



Nencki and Hahn described the uric acid excretion in dogs with 

 Eck's fistula as distinctly higher than normal. This finding we have 

 therefore been unable to confirm. 



At no period during the investigation was there ever, in this dog's 

 urine, the slightest trace of carbamate ; the urine was acid or amphoteric 

 throughout, so that no noteworthy amount of carbonic acid gas was 

 present. Nevertheless, the dog had been fed with meat, and the post 

 mortem examination had revealed a perfect Eck's fistula. Not even 

 when given ammonium carbonate solution (which contains carbamate) 

 did any carbamate appear in the urine. 



Indeed, the urine of this dog, as a result of the chemical analysis, 

 must be regarded as perfectly normal, the relation both of urea and of 

 ammonia to total nitrogen being, for a meat diet, about the normal one. 



In Dog No, ^, weighing 12J Kg., the urinary analysis was not so 

 complete, but nevertheless a catheter specimen was daily examined 

 for total CO2 and carbamate CO2. The difficulty in making a complete 

 analysis lay in the fact that it was impossible to keep this dog confined 

 in her cage (see p. 278). 



While on a diet of bread and milk, the urine was frequently alkaline 

 in reaction, and, when so, was found to contain a considerable amount of 

 carbonic acid and carbamate. The carbamate CO2 did not, however, 

 bear any constant proportion to the total CO2. The alkaline urine of 



* Burian and Schur : Loc. cit., s. 342, 



(281) 



