692 URINE. 



diseases where the small intestines are obstructed, causing an increased 

 putrefaction and thus producing an abundance of indol. Such an increased 

 elimination of indican occurs on tying the small intestine of a dog, but 

 not the large intestine (JAFFE), an observation which has been recently 

 confirmed by ELLINGER and PRirrz. 1 They removed an intestine loop 

 in dogs and replaced it in a reversed position, the distal end of the loop 

 being attached to the proximal end of the intestine, and in this manner, 

 by the inverted peristalsis so obtained, they effected a disturbance in 

 the movement of the intestinal contents. It was shown that this obstruc- 

 tion in the small intestine caused an increased elimination of indican, 

 while an obstruction in the large intestine showed no such action. 



The putrefaction of proteins in other organs and tissues besides the 

 intestine may also cause an increase in the indican of the urine. Cer- 

 tain investigators, BLUMENTHAL, ROSENFELD, and LEWIN, claim to have 

 shown that an increased excretion of indican can also be brought about 

 without putrefaction by an increased destruction of tissue in starvation 

 and also after phlorhizin poisoning; but these statements are vehemently 

 opposed by other investigators, such as P. MAYER, SCHOLZ, and ELLINGER, 

 and are improbable. The indol, it seems, is not formed from the trypto- 

 phane (indolaminopropionic acid) as intermediary step in the demoli- 

 tion of the proteins in the animal body, but rather from the putrefac- 

 tion of the tryptophane in the intestine. GENTZEN, 2 has also shown 

 that tryptophane introduced subcutaneously or per os into the body 

 does not lead to an indicanuria, but only when it is exposed to bacterial 

 decomposition in the large intestine. The reports as to the elimination 

 of indican after oxalic-acid poisoning are conflicting. After poisoning 

 with oxalic acid HARNACK and v. LEYEN found an increased indican elimi- 

 nation, and MORACZEWSKI believes he has proven a' certain parallelism 

 between the quantity of indican and the quantity of oxalic acid in 

 diabetes. ScnoLZ, 3 on the contrary, obtained no increase in the excretion 

 of indican after oxalic-acid poisoning. 



The excretion of indican is, as above stated, increased by the introduction of 

 indol, but also by indoxyl or indoxyl-carboxylic acid. Indol-carboxylic acid, 

 on the contrary, does not yield indican, but, according to PORCHER and HER- 

 VIEUX, another chromogen. BENEDICENTI has also shown that indigo blue or 



1 Jaffe", Virchow's Arch., 70; Ellinger and Prutz, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 38. 



2 Blumenthal, Arch. f. (Anat. u.) Physiol., 1901, Suppl., and 1902, with Rosenfeld, 

 Charit< annalen, 27, and Hofmeister's Beitrage, 5; Lewin, Hofmeister's Beitrage, 1; 

 Mayer, Arch. f. (Anat. u.) Physiol., 1902, Zeitschr. f. klin. Med., 47, and Zeitschr. f. 

 physiol. Chem., 29, 32; Scholz, ibid., 38; Ellinger, ibid., 39; Gentzen, " Ueber die Vor- 

 stufen des Indols bei der Eiweissfaulnis im Thierkorper," Inaug -Dissert Konigsberg 

 1904. 



3 Harnack, Zeitschr. f. physiol. chemie, 29; Scholz, 1. c., Moraczewski, CentralbL 

 f. innere Med., 1903. 



