LACTOSE IN URINE. 815 



Maltose sometimes occurs in the urine according to LEPINE and BOULUD. 

 GEELMUYDEN, l who also held this view, now states that maltose does not occur 

 in the urine. 



Laiose is a substance named by HUPPERT and found by LEO 2 in diabetic, urines 

 in certain cases, and which he considers as a sugar. It is levogyrate, amorphous, 

 and does not taste sweet, but rather sharp and salty. Laiose has a reducing 

 action on metallic oxides, does not ferment, and gives a non-crystalline, yellowish- 

 brown oil with phenylhydrazine. There is no positive proof as yet that this 

 substance is a sugar. 



L :ctose. The appearance of lactose in the urine of pregnant women 

 was nrst shown by the observations of DE SINETY and F. HOFMEISTER, 

 and this has been substantiated by other investigators. After the inges- 

 tion of large quantities of milk-sugar some lactose may be found in the 

 urine (see Chapter VIII on absorption). LANGSTEIN and STEINITZ have 

 observed the passage of lactose and also of galactose 3 into the urine of 

 nurslings with disease of the stomach. The passage of lactose into the 

 urine is called lactosuria. 



The positive detection of this sugar in the urine is difficult, because 

 it is, like glucose, dextrogyrate, and also gives the usual reduction tests. 

 If urine contains a dextrogyrate, non-fermentable sugar which reduces 

 bismuth solutions, then it is very probable that it contains lactose. It 

 must be remarked that the fermentation test for lactose is, according to 

 the experience of LUSK and VoiT, 4 best performed by using pure cultivated 

 yeast (saccharomyces apiculatus). This yeast only ferments the glucose 

 while it does not decompose the milk-sugar. VOIT claims that if RUB- 

 NER'S test is performed without heating to boiling, but only to 80 C., 

 the color becomes yellow or brown in the presence of lactose, instead 

 of red. The most positive means for the detection of this sugar is to 

 isolate the sugar from the urine. This may be done by the method 

 suggested by F. HoFMEisTER. 5 



R. BAUER 6 detects galactose as well as lactose in the urine by oxidation with 

 concentrated nitric acid, producing mucic acid. 



Cammidge's reaction, which is recommended in the diagnosis of acute diseases 

 of the pancreas, consists in that certain urines do not give the phenylhydrazine 

 reaction directly, but only after boiling with an acid. The reason of this is not 

 known and the reaction is partly due to cane-sugar, in part to pentoses or gluco- 

 ronic acid and in part to mixtures of bodies. 



1 Lepine and Boulud, Compt. Rend., 132; Geelmuyden, Zeitschr. f. klin, Med., 70. 



2 Virchow's Arch., 107. 



3 Hofmeister, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 1, which also contains the pertinent 

 literature. See also Lemaire, ibid., 21; Langstein and Steinitz, Hofmeister's Beitrage, 7. 



4 Carl Voit, Ueber Die Glycogenbildung nach Aufnahme verschiedener Zuckeraten, 

 Zeitschr. f . Biologie, 28. 



5 Hofmeister, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 1, which also contains the pertinent 

 literature. 



6 Zeitschr. f. Physiol. Chem., 51. 



