728 URINE. 



ing agents, and quinone can be detected by its peculiar odor. Hydroquinone- 

 sulphuric acid is detected in the urine by the same methods as pyrocatechin sul- 

 phuric acid. 



C.O.S0 2 .OH 

 Indoxyl-sulphuric Acid, C 8 H 7 NS04, C 6 H</\CH , also called 



NH 



URINE INDICAN, formerly called UKOXANTHINE (HELLER), occurs as an 

 alkali-salt in the urine. This acid is the mother-substance of a great 

 part of the indigo of the urine. The quantity of indigo which can be 

 separated from the urine is considered as a measure of the quantity of 

 indoxyl-sulphuric acid (and indoxyl-glucuronic acid) contained in the 

 urine. This amount, according to JAFFE, for man is 5-20 milligrams 

 per twenty-four hours, and 0.9-37.6 milligrams according to MAiLLARD. 1 

 Horse's urine contains about twenty-five times as much indigo-forming 

 substance as human urine. 



Indoxyl-sulphuric acid is derived, as previously mentioned (page 515), 

 from indol, which is first oxidized in the body into indoxyl and is then 

 conjugated with sulphuric acid. After subcutaneous injection of indol 

 the elimination of indican is considerably increased (JAFFE, BAUMANN 

 and BRIEGER, and others). It is also increased by the introduction 

 in the animal organism of orthonitrophenolpropiolic acid (G. HOPPE- 

 SEYLER 2 ). Indol is formed by the putrefaction of proteins. The 

 putrefaction of secretions rich in protein in the intestine also explains the 

 occurrence of indican in the urine during starvation. Gelatin, on the 

 contrary, does not increase the elimination of indican. 



An abnormally increased elimination of indican occurs in those 

 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 PRUTZ. 3 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. 



1 Jaffe, Pfliiger's Arch., 3; Maillard, Journ. de Physiol. et de Pathol., 12. 



2 Jaffe, Centralbl. f. d. med. Wissensch., 1872; Baumann and Brieger, Zeitschr. f. 

 physiol. Chem., 3; G. Hoppe-Seyler, ibid., 7 and 8. See also Porcher and Hervieux,, 

 Journ. de Phyisol., 7. 



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



