298 BACTERIAL POISONS. 



edly explains many of the mistakes and discrepancies con- 

 cerning the properties of hypoxanthine, which it resembles 

 more than adenine, and for the same reason, perhaps, 

 adenine was so often overlooked. 



HYPOXANTHINE, C 5 H f N 4 O, sometimes also known as 

 sarcine or sarkine, was discovered by SCHERER (1850) in 

 splenic pulp and in the muscles of the heart, and was 

 named thus because it contains one atom of oxygen less 

 than xanthine. It has since been obtained, usually accom- 

 panying adenine and guanine, from nearly all of the 

 animal tissues and organs rich in nucleated cells, i. e., in 

 nuclein. It has been found in blood after death, but not 

 in blood when flowing through the bloodvessels. SALOMON 

 has recently shown it to be a normal constituent of urine, 

 present, however, in an exceedingly minute quantity. In 

 the blood and urine of leucocythsemic patients it occurs in 

 increased quantity owing to the abnormally large number 

 of nucleated white blood-corpuscles in circulation (see page 

 284). BENCE JONES observed in the urine of a boy, who 

 about three years before showed the symptoms of renal 

 colic, a deposit of characteristic whetstone-like crystals, 

 resembling uric acid, but differing from the latter by dis- 

 solving readily on the application of heat, while from 

 hydrochloric acid it crystallized in elongated six-sided 

 plates. These crystals he believed to be those of xan- 

 thine, but SCHERER and others consider them to be hypo- 

 xanthine. It is therefore quite possible, though very rare, 

 for this base to form a deposit in the urine and to be 

 confounded in shape with uric acid. THUDICHUM has 

 obtained it from the urine of persons sick with liver or 

 kidney diseases. 



Among other places it has been found in the brain, 

 muscle, serum, marrow of bones, kidney, heart, spleen, 

 liver, peripheral muscles (sarkine of STRECKER) ; in the 

 spawn of salmon (PiccARD), in the testicles of the bull 

 (SALOMON), in the nuclein of pus and red corpuscles (Kos- 

 SEL), in developing eggs, and in putrefaction of albumin 

 (SALOMON). It has also been found in the spores of lyco- 



