714 URINE. 



Organic combinations containing sulphur of unknown kind, which may 

 in small part consist of sulphocyanides, 0.04 (GSCHEIDLEN) to 0.11 p. m. 

 (I. MUNK *), cystine or bodies related to it, taurine derivatives, chrondroitin- 

 sulphuric acid and protein bodies, but in greater part are made up of antoxy- 

 proteic acid, oxyproteic acid, alloxyproteic acid, and uroferric acid, are found 

 in human as well as in animal urines. The sulphur of these mostly 

 unknown combinations has been called " neutral," to differentiate it 

 from the " acid " sulphur of the sulphate and ethereal-sulphuric acid 

 (SALKOWSKI 2 ) . The neutral sulphur in normal urine as determined by 

 SALKOWSKI is 15 per cent, by STADTHAGEN 13.3-14.5 per cent, and by 

 LEPINE 20 per cent, and HARNACK and KLEINE 3 19-24 per cent of the 

 total sulphur. In starvation, according to FR. MULLER, with insufficient 

 supply of oxygen (RE ALE and BOERI, HARNACK and KLEINE), as in 

 chloroform narcosis (KAST and HESTER), as also after the introduction of 

 sulphur (PRESCH and YVON 4 ), the quantity of neutral sulphur is increased. 

 The quantity of neutral sulphur varies, according to BENEDICT, within 

 rather narrow limits and especially, according to FOLIN, it is dependent 

 to a less degree than the sulphate excretion upon the extent of the 

 protein metabolism. The relation between the neutral and acid sulphur 

 depends in the first place upon the extent of the sulphuric-acid excretion. 

 According to HARNACK and KLEINE, 5 the relation of the oxidized 

 sulphur to the total sulphur changes always in the same way as the 

 relation of the nitrogen of the urea to the total nitrogen. The more 

 unoxidized sulphur is eliminated the more abundant are the nitrogen 

 compounds, not urea, in the urine a statement which coincides with 

 recent observations showing that the neutral sulphur originates chiefly 

 from the different proteic acids, and the uroferric acid. 



According to LEPINE, a part of the neutral sulphur is more readily oxidized 

 (directly with chlorine or bromine) into sulphuric acid than the other, which is 

 only converted into sulphuric acid after fusing with potash and saltpeter. The 

 investigations of W. SMITH 6 show that it is probable that the difficultly oxidizable 

 part of the neutral sulphur occurs as sulpho-acids. An increased elimination of 

 neutral sulphur has been observed in various diseases, such as pneumonia, cystin- 

 uria, and especially where the flow of bile into the intestine is prevented. 



The total quantity of sulphur in the urine is determined by fusing the solid 

 urinary residue with saltpeter and caustic alkali or sodium peroxide, or by oxida- 



1 Gscheidlen, Pfliiger's Arch., 14; Munk, Virchow's Arch., 69. 



2 Ibid., 58, and Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 9. 



3 Stadthagen, Virchow's Arch., 100; Lepine, Compt. rend., 91 and 97: Harnack 

 and Kleine, Zeitschr. f. Biologie, 37. 



4 Fr. Miiller, Berl. klin. Wochenschr., 1887; Reale and Boeri, Maly's Jahresber., 24; 

 Harnack and Kleine, 1. c.; Presch, Virchow's Arch., 119; Yvon Arch, de Physiol. 

 (5), 10. 



5 Benedict, Zeitschr. f. klin. Med.,^36; Harnack and Kleine, 1. c.; Folin, Amer. 

 Journ. of Physiol., 13. 



6 Lupine, 1. c.; Smith, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 17. 



