AFTER SPLENECTOMY. 385 



some time, even when putrefaction is absolutely excluded. 

 This reaction was found to be characteristic for the two 

 organs mentioned, namely, the liver and spleen, and could 

 not be obtained with the kidney, pancreas, thymus, or blood. 

 Furthermore, Spitzer ascertained that pure hypoxanthin and 

 xanthin are transformed into uric acid by the oxygen of the 

 air, when they are dissolved in extracts of the liver and 

 spleen. Adenin and guanin may apparently undergo the 

 same transformation, though to a far smaller extent. Spitzer 

 concludes that the peculiar behavior of the spleen and liver, 

 as contrasted with the other organs enumerated, may be in- 

 terpreted to indicate that " even during life these two organs 

 are the principal seats of uric acid formation." The author 

 adds, however : " it must be remembered that observations made 

 on dead material cannot be assigned to the living cells with- 

 out reserve. We can therefore by no means deny the power 

 of the last mentioned organs (pancreas, kidney, thymus, etc.) 

 to form uric acid during life, although they perhaps possess 

 the capacity in slighter degree than the liver and spleen." * 



We have studied the importance of the spleen for uric acid 

 formation in the living organism by a more direct method, 

 namely, experiments on splenectomized animals. At the tune 

 that our investigation was begun we were unaware of the ob- 

 servation of Lo Monaco f on uric acid excretion in a man after 

 extirpation of the spleen. He found the output after the op- 

 eration approximately normal on a mixed diet ; hi any case, it 

 was not noticeably diminished. The recorded observations on 

 uric acid formation in hypertrophy and other abnormal con- 

 ditions of the spleen are uncertain and in part contradictory .J 

 They thus afford no definite answer to the problem. 



* Spitzer, loc. cit., p. 200. 



t Lo Monaco, Bulletico della societa Lancisiani degli ospedali di Roma, 

 1894, xiv, p. 102 ; also Schmidt's Jahrbucher, 1896, cclii, p. 109. 



t Cf. for example, Stadthagen, Archiv fur pathologische Anatomic, 1887, 

 cix, p. 390 ; Thomas, Neubauer and Vogel's Analyse des Harns, 1890, p. 241 ; 

 Simon, Manual of clinical diagnosis, 1897, p. 349. Schreiber, loc. cit., 1899, 

 p. 91. 



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