258 INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 



moderately strong reaction for indican in the urine 

 during a long period of time (that is, most of the time 

 during many years) and still retain good health and do 

 not suffer obtrusively from digestive disorders. This 

 is true of many students who live sedentary lives. On 

 the other hand, there are persons with digestive disorders 

 who show little or no indican in the urine. Finally, 

 there are not very rare instances in which during a short 

 or a considerable period the urine contains very large 

 quantities of indican so that the reaction with Ober- 

 meyer's reagent is intense. I think it safe to say that 

 such persons are seldom free from clinical evidences of 

 intestinal disorder and that often there are also in these 

 cases some indications of intoxication. 



Almost every physician who has observed considerable 

 numbers of patients with reference to the presence or 

 absence of indican in the urine, has been puzzled to 

 interpret his results. For he has no sooner begun to 

 attach importance to the presence of a strong indican 

 reaction in certain cases than his faith in this as a sign of 

 disease has been shaken by the fact that he has found a 

 strong indican reaction in the urine of some person who 

 is apparently well. I think it would greatly aid us in the 

 interpretation of the meaning of indicanuria if we took 

 into consideration the important factor of the ability 

 of the organism to defend itself against the toxic action 

 of indol by quickly disposing of it. It is of course 

 difficult to fashion standards for the judgment of this 

 factor of defense. But there are certain obvious con- 

 siderations which bear on the judgment of the defensive 



