ON URIC ACID FORMATION AFTER 

 SPLENECTOMY.* 



BY LAFAYETTE B. MENDEL AND HOLMES C. JACKSON. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



IT is to-day a well accepted fact that uric acid formation 

 occurs in mammalia under conditions quite different from 

 those pertaining in birds and reptiles. The liver, which plays 

 so important a r6le in the uric acid synthesis of the latter 

 animals, is not the organ of chief importance for the similar 

 process in the mammal. The experimental evidence upon 

 which this position is based is diverse. Thus after exclusion 

 of the liver from the circulation by means of Eck's fistula 

 and ligation of the hepatic artery there is, if anything, an 

 increase in the output of uric acid.f Again, in cirrhosis and 

 hypertrophy of the liver, as well as in artificial degeneration 

 of hepatic tissue, | no marked decrease in uric acid excretion 

 has been noted. Such results would scarcely be expected if 

 the liver were actively concerned in uric acid synthesis. In 

 searching for an organ to which the production of uric acid 

 might be delegated, many physiologists have turned their 

 attention to the spleen. Thus Neumeister states: "The 

 spleen stands in close relationship to uric acid formation, as is 

 evident from experiments on animals and from pathological 

 observations. This function is simply explained by the rich- 

 ness of the spleen in leucocytes, and therefore also in cell 



* Keprinted from the Amer. Jour, of Physiol., vol. iv. A report of some 

 of these experiments was communicated to the American Physiological 

 Society at the December meeting, 1899. Amer. Jour, of Physiol., 1900, iii, p. i. 



t Hahn and Nencki, Archives des sciences biologiques de St. P^tersbourg, 

 1892, i. p. 401 ; De Filippi, Archives italiennes de biologic, 1899, xxxi, p. 211. 



t Lieblein, Archiv f iir experimentelle Pathologic und Pharmakologie, 1894, 

 xxxiii, p. 318. 



