234 



INFLAMMATION 



which equals about 6 per cent, of the total daily nitrogen out- 

 put of persons under condition of starvation. 1 Wanner 2 found 

 characteristic variations in the amount of proteid in sputum 

 from different conditions, as follows : in bronchitis the amount 

 of proteid is very small ; in bronchiectasis proteid is present, 

 but the amount of uncoagulable nitrogen (due to autolysis) is 

 relatively large; in phthisis as well as in bronchiectasis the 

 amount of proteid does not exceed 1 per cent., in pneumonia 

 it may reach 3 per cent., but it is highest in pulmonary gan- 

 grene. Any proteid content that causes more than a slight 

 turbidity on boiling indicates an inflammation ; e. g., in case of 

 doubt between a diagnosis of pneumonia and infarct a high 

 proteid content speaks for the former. The mucin of sputum 

 yields 33.6 per cent, of glucosamin when split with HC1, which 

 gives an index of the quantity of mucin ; this is highest in 

 chronic bronchitis and lowest in pneumonia and phthisis. 

 Kossel found 0.10.33 gm. of nucleins in the sputum daily. 



The following table by Bokay (taken from Ott) gives the 

 proportion of the organic constituents of sputum in parts per 

 thousand: 



TABLE III. 



On account of the digestion of the exudates by the leuco- 

 cytes, sputum contains proteoses, peptones, and amino-acids, 

 generally in proportion to the richness of the exudate in leuco- 

 cytes; they are, therefore, most abundant in pneumonia. Simon 3 

 found considerable albumose in phthisical sputum, but no nucleo- 

 histon or free histon. Staffregen, however, could find no true 

 peptone in phthisical sputum, but Stadelmann 4 found that such 



1 Plesch (Zeit. exp. Path. u. Ther., 1906, Bd. iii, July) found that 4.8 per 

 cent, of all the absorbed calories were lost in the sputum in an advanced case 

 of phthisis. 



2 Deut. /Arch. klin. Med.. 1903 (75), 347. 



8 Arch. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 1903 (49), 449. 

 4 Zeit. klin. Med., 1889 (16), 128. 



