450 METABOLIC ABNORMALITIES, A UTOINTOXICATION 



lesions of the finest bile capillaries, 1 although there is also some 

 increase in hemolysis, and a decrease in the total blood and all 

 its elements (Welsch 2 ) ; and both bile salts and pigments 

 appear in the urine. Neuberg and Richter 3 have analyzed the 

 blood drawn during life from a patient with acute hepatic 

 atrophy, and isolated from 355 c.c. of blood 0.787 gm. tyrosin, 

 1.102 gm. leucin, and 0.240 gm. of lysin ; they estimated the 

 amount of free amino-acids in the entire blood to be about 30 

 grams. This amount is so large that they question the possi- 

 bility of it all arising from the degenerated liver tissue ; but 

 more analyses are necessary before conclusions on this point can 

 be drawn. 4 



Origin of the Amino-acids. The earliest conception of 

 the source of the leucin and tyrosin found in the urine was that 

 it came from the products of tryptic digestion absorbed from 

 the intestinal tract, which the liver could not convert into urea 

 because of its damaged condition. On the demonstration by 

 Jacoby 5 that these same bodies were present in the livers of 

 phosphorus-poisoned animals because of autolysis, it became 

 probable that the leucin and tyrosin found in the urine were 

 formed from the degenerated liver-cells rather than in the intes- 

 tine, which view has become generally accepted. In support of 

 this view are also the observations which indicate that the 

 amino-acids formed in the intestine are resynthesized or other- 

 wise altered in passing through the intestinal wall. Neuberg 

 and Richter have, however, suggested that the urinary amino- 

 acids are, at least in part, derived from the intestinal contents, 

 assuming that they may pass unaltered through the intestinal 

 wall because of pathological alterations in its structure. It 

 seems most probable that the urinary amino-acids are derived 

 partly (and perhaps chiefly) from the autolysis of the liver, and 

 partly from amino-acids produced both in the intestine and 

 within the body during tissue metabolism, and which the liver 

 cannot transform into urea as it normally does. 



1 Lang (Zeit. exp. Path., 1906, Bd. 3, July) found fibrinogen in the bile of 

 a dog poisoned with phosphorus, which may account for the occlusion of the 

 bile vessels and the resulting jaundice. 



2 Arch. int. Pharm. et Ther., 1905 (14), 197. 

 3 Deut. med. Woch., 1904 (30), 499. 



4 v. Bergmann (Hofmeister's Beit., 1904 (6), 40) was able to isolate 2.3 

 grams of amino-acids combined with the chloride of naphthalene sulphonie 

 acid, from 270 c.c. of blood in a case of acute yellow atrophy. 



5 Zeit. physiol. Chem., 1900 (30), 174. 



