848 HAROLD BAILEY 



Examination of the Blood by Modern Methods 



In 1912 Folin and his coworkers developed microchemical tests which 

 require only small amounts of blood for a complete study. The new work 

 of Folin and Denis (a) and of Van Slyke and Meyer (a) show that neither 

 the intestine nor the liver has more to do with the deamination of absorbed 

 protein than have other tissues. If these demonstrations are not contro- 

 verted, then high amino-acid nitrogen cannot be charged entirely to defec- 

 tive functioning of the liver. It might be well to mention that as there 

 is a deamidase in the placenta capable of splitting placental protein, it is 

 possible that this source is the origin of the excretion of amiiio bodies in 

 the maternal urine. 



Farr and Williams examined the nitrogen in the blood of 12 normal 

 cases of pregnancy and found the non-protein nitrogen to average from 

 20 to 30 mg. per 100 c.c. and the urea to vary from 6 to 10 mg. In 11 

 cases representing the kidney of pregnancy and preeclampsia or ; in other 

 words, with renal symptoms of a mild nature, the non-protein nitrogen 

 varied from 29 to 52 mg. and the urea from 7 to 30 mg. In 13 eclamptics 

 the non-protein nitrogen ran from 25 to 72 mg. and the urea from 11 to 

 50 mg. They conclude that the degree of retention in women with renal 

 changes corresponds to that seen in chronic parenchymatous nephritis. 



Bock, and Cullen, Ellis and Van Slyke determined that the normal, 

 amino-acid content of the blood was from 4 to 8 mg. per 100 c.c. Losee 

 and Van Slyke in examining 11 cases of eclampsia found a normal amino- 

 acid amount, the figures varying from 4.4 to 7.9 mg. Their figures for 

 the non-protein nitrogen and the urea nitrogen fell within those noted 

 by Farr and Williams. Siemens agrees with Losee and Van Slyke that 

 in eclampsia and nephritic toxemia the amino-acid values are generally 

 normal. He noted in three cases of obscure toxemia without albuminuria 

 an increase amounting to from 15 to 21 mg. and thought that possibly 

 these toxic cases were related to acute yellow atrophy. 



In the collected figures of some 30 cases of eclampsia of the last three 

 observers there are none with an abnormal amino-acid content in the blood 

 and it would appear that the theory of defective deamination does not 

 apply in this disease. However, there are evidences in the accumulation 

 of other substances that the liver does not function normally in this con- 

 dition. 



In the metabolism of creatinin, one of the striking features is that it 

 is remarkably constant for any one individual and quite independent of 

 the ordinary protein metabolism. The same may be said of the catabolism 

 of the nucleic acid to form uric acid. The kidney has a limited power of 

 excretion for both creatinin and uric acid and any increase above this 

 leads to a retention and accumulation in the blood. As regards the uric 

 acid, this retention is easy to demonstrate by feeding such a substance as 



