CHEMICAL I'.ASIS OF THK ANIMAL BODY. U'J 



-. Indoxylsulphuric acid. C S H 6 N . . SO,OH. The indican 



of urine 



A substance was long ago described as frequently occurring in 

 tin- urine and <miietimes in the sweat of man and other animals 

 whirh yielded by the action of acids tin- blue colouring matter 

 as one of the products of its decomposition. It w;i- re- 

 at tliat time as identical with the indican kn>\vn t occur 

 in several plants (Indigofera tinctoria, l>atis tim-tuna ) Ilnjij.e- 

 Seyl.-r <m the other hand, having regard to the iiivat'-r ease with 

 which the indican of plants undergoes decomposition, regarded 

 tlii'iii as most probably different substances. 1 This view was con- 

 tinued by the researches of Baumann. who first proved that urinary 

 indie an is not a glucoside, as is that of plants, but is in reality 

 an ethereal eninjinund of sulphuric acid with indoxyl (C 8 H 6 N . < 'II 

 analogous to those already described above as derived from phenol. 

 ,A< - Indol. as previously stated, is a characteristic product 

 of the putrefaction of ]>rteids. Further, when administered to 

 animals, it leads to a correspondingly increased output of urinary 

 indii -an, :{ an increase which is similarly observed as the result of 

 either a normally, pathologically, or experimentally in<-i 

 activity of putrefactive processes in the alimentary canal. 4 Hence 

 indican is under normal conditions more plentiful in the urine of 

 herbivoia than of carnivora. It is al.-o increased in carnivorous 

 urine under a meat diet, is not increased by the administration of 

 gelatin and is l.-ast during starvation, although in the latin 

 it may not entirely disappear. 6 These facts correspond again to 

 tin- experimental observations that gelatin does not yield indol 

 during its putrefactive decomposition, whereas inucin does, 7 and 

 the latter substance constitutes a part at least of the content < "I 

 the alimentary canal during starvation. These statements show 

 cl.-arlv the origin and mode of formation of urinary indican. the 

 rmed indol undergoing oxidation into indoxyl, which is 

 siil.si..|uently united ti the elements of sulphuric acid and exm-tcd 

 as an ethereal compound 



Indoxyl-sulphuric acid is nut known in the free state; it< m<.st 

 important salt is that with ]><,ta mm, the form in which it occurs 



1 For f>:irlior literature *< II /*iW -/x///i rlrm. An<il, Anfl. 4. 

 1875. s I'M. .-in. 1 /'/,,,,, Ckem 1881,8 ^41. 



- .-I ,-.-/,. M.I. MM. (1876). S :<u| 29 ' ;/-./s,V CI,,,,, M.|. i ||877), 



MI. (1879), 8. 254 Cf. < ll..|,]-*>.-U.T . / MM 



Jnff. t'.nir.ilh f. d. mrd. Wiu. 1872, Sn. 2. 481, 497. 

 UCXM877). 8 72. 



nrtwi-iU-r. M<ttl,.-il. <l. M -/. Kln.H. M.I 11. (1886). 



<;i\i- lit.T.-itnre to data. 

 Muii.T. //../ s. 341. /; '"/. WtdmtA, !u of 



XJHTilll.'llti '"I ( ''-t'i ) 



Nen.-ki. /.' - '/ ./ Ml MI (1874), - ^> lw> Abrt. in 



dbwA is:-. ^ ;i \v..\i. /. i pkg$bt - M.I i. n-r:i, s 339. 



; WaU-lili, .In f'. r r,,k-t. L'htm iNM'.). M-l. \MI. (1878), S. 71. 



