572 AN AMERICAN TEXT-BOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



solution of indol mixed with hydrochloric acid colors fir-wood cherry-red. 

 If urine be mixed with an equal volume of hydrochloric acid, chloroform 

 added, and then gradually an oxidizing agent (chloride of lime), any indoxyl- 

 sulphuric acid present will be oxidized to indigo-blue, which gives a blue color 

 to the chloroform in which it dissolves. 



Skatol, or ,3-Methyl Indol, C 8 H 6 CH 3 NH. — The history of skatol, 



H 

 C 

 // \ /\ 



HC C CCH 3 

 I II II , 



HC C CH 



% /\/ 

 C N 

 H H 



Skatol. 



is the same as that of indol. Its source is from proteid putrefaction ; after ab- 

 sorption it unites with an oxy- group, and the skatoxyl thus produced pairs with 

 sulphuric acid, and appears in the urine as ethereal skatoxyl-sulphuric acid. 



CH 3 



Epinephrin.— C 6 H 4 ^C.CHOH.CO.C 6 H 3 (OH) 2 . The above is the 



X NH 7 

 formula for epinephrin, the active principle of the suprarenals, as proposed 

 by Abel. 1 Abel has formed several distinct salts of this pyrrol base. Of 

 the sulphate of epinephrin, only 0.000018 gram per kilogram of dog causes 

 a sharp rise in blood-pressure. 



Aromatic Bodies in the Urine. — There have been named above as 

 appearing in normal human urine the ethereal sulphates of phenol, jo-cresol, 

 pyroeatechin, indoxyl, skatoxyl, hvdroparacumaric acid, and oxyphenyl-acetic 

 acid, of which, however, the last two appear likewise as their salts without 

 being combined with sulphuric acid. 2 These are derived from proteid putre- 

 factive products formed almost entirely in the large intestine (see p. 545), 

 which are partially absorbed and partially pass into the feces. The amount 

 of ethereal sulphate in the urine gives an indication of the amount of intes- 

 tinal putrefaction. It does not disappear in starvation, mucin and nucleo- 

 proteid of bile and intestinal juice furnishing material. 3 If the intestinal 

 tract be treated so as to make it antiseptic, the ethereal sulphates disappear 

 from the urine. 4 Diarrhoea likewise decreases their amount, obviously from 

 the short time given for putrefaction. The synthesis between the aromatic 

 bodies and sulphuric acid probably occurs in the liver. The liver and the 

 kidney both have the power of combining with a considerable amount of 



1 ZeitsehriftJUr phyiriologische Chemie, 1899, Bd. 28, S. 318. 



1 Baumann: Zeitschrifi fib- phi/xiolni/iarhr (Vn-mir. ism;, Bd. 10, S. 125. 



s Von Noorden : Pathologic des Stoffwechsels, 1893, S. 163. 



* Baumann : Op. cit., S. 129. 



