BENCE-JONES' PROTEIN 



491 



ing: Possibly the columnar epithelium that lines the alimentary canal is 

 diseased. The agent that converts the digestive products may therefore 

 fail to function. In consequence, the incompletely synthesized products 

 are taken into the blood stream and then eliminated as a matter foreign to 

 it. 4 Abderhalden and Rostoski have shown that Bence-Jones' protein yields 

 a "preeipitin" which is active with human serum. It must therefore rep- 

 resent assimilated material and cannot be an exogenous product derived 

 directly from intestinal processes. 



IV. Metabolism Studies 



Eolin and Denis (g) report the following metabolic findings in a case 

 excreting Bence-Jones' protein. The patient during this experiment was 

 kept on a low protein diet. (See Table I, page 490.) 



When the patient was given a liigh protein diet the following results 

 were obtained. They decided that "there is nothing like a definite or con- 

 stant relationship between the total nitrogen and the protein of the urine. 

 Allard and Weber also found no relationship between the amounts of pro- 

 tein catabolized and the Bence-Jones' protein eliminated. 



TABLE II. HIGH PROTEIN DIET 



PER CENT OF TOTAL NITROGEN 



These observers also found that the amount of the Bence-Jones' pro- 

 tein excreted was constant in the day and night urines as is shown in the 

 following table : 



