THE CHEMISTRY OF THE ANIMAL BODY. 539 



Dimethyl Ketone, or Acetone, CH 3 CO( !H 3 . — This is found normally in 

 the blood and urine, and in especially large quantities in patients suffering 

 from an abnormally large decomposition of fat (see p. 537). During the 

 first day of starvation by Cetti, the starvation artist, the amount of acetone 

 in the urine rose to forty-eight times that of the day previous. 1 It may like- 

 wise appear in the breath, giving a characteristic odor. Acetone is a product 

 of the dry distillation of tartaric and citric acids, of wood, and of sugar. 

 Oxidized, acetone yields acetic and formic acids, whereas, treated with hydro- 

 gen, it is resolved into secondary propyl alcohol. When acetone is in the 

 urine it is also found in the intestinal canal and in the feces, probably by pas- 

 sage through the intestinal wall. 



Butyl Compounds. 



Normal Butyric Acid, CH 3 CH 2 CH 2 COOH. — Butyric acid was first found 

 in butter, combined with glycerin. When free it gives the rancid odor to 

 butter, and likewise contributes to the odor of sweat. It has been detected in 

 the spleen, in the blood, and in the urine, but usually only in traces. As a pro- 

 duct of putrefaction of proteid, and especially of carbohydrates, it is found in 

 the intestines and in the stomach when the acidity is insufficient to be bacteri- 

 cidal. It contributes to the unpleasant taste after indigestion, through the 

 return of a small portion of the chyme to the mouth. In cheese it is a 

 product of the putrefaction of casein. 



If starch, sugar, or dextrin be treated with water, calcium carbonate, and 

 foul cheese, the carbohydrates are slowly converted into a mass of calcium 

 lactate. On further standing the lactic acid is resolved into butyric acid : 

 2CH 3 CHOHCOOH = C 3 H 7 COOH + 4H + CO,.* 



Lactic acid. 



Calcium salts are found to putrefy more readily than others, and the carbon- 

 ate is added above to neutralize any acids formed in the putrefactive process 

 which might inhibit the action of the spores. This same fermentation takes 

 place in the intestinal tract. 



Iso-butyl Alcohol, (CH 3 ) 2 : CH.CH 2 OH.— This is found in fusel oil. 

 Iso-butyric Acid, (CH 3 ) 2 : CH.COOH. — This is a product of proteid putrefaction 

 and is found in the feces. 



Pentyl Compounds. 



Iso-pentyl Alcohol, or Amyl Alcohol, (( , II,),( 1 II( , II,( , II,()II.— This is the principal 

 constituent id' fusel oil, producing the after-effects of distilled-liquor intoxication. The 

 poisonous dose in the dog per kilogram for the different alcohols has been found n> lie — for 

 ethyl alcohol 5-6 grams, for propyl alcohol '■'> grams, tor butyl alcohol 1. 7 grams, fur amyl 

 alcohol L.5 grams 1 (see p. 535). 



Iso-pentoic or Iso- valerianic Acid, (CII 3 ) 2 CH( Ih,( ( )( HI. — This is found 

 in cheese, in the sweat of the foot, likewise in the urine in small-pox, in typhus, 

 and in acute atrophy of the liver. It is a product of proteid putrefaction, and 

 has a most unpleasant odor. 



1 Fr. Miiller: Berliner Minische Wochemchrif^ 1887, S. 128. 



2 Dujardin-Beaumetz et Audig6: Comptea rendus, t. 81, p. 19. 



