LEUCOMAINS OF THE URINE. 



465 



or with soda-lime, it gives off a combustible gas having the odor of 

 ethylamin. On boiling with baryta or ammonia, ethylamin and bar- 

 ium carbonate result. With nitrous acid it gives sarcolactic acid. 

 A somewhat similar substance was isolated by Meissner from the 

 urine of the dog. 



The distinguished Italian toxicologist Selmi was, perhaps, the first 

 to draw attention to the probable formation of basic substances in 

 the living body during those pathological changes brought on by 

 the presence of pathogenic germs. In a memoir presented to the 

 Academy of Sciences of Bologna, in December, 1880, he announced 

 that infectious diseases, or those in which there occurs an internal 

 disarrangement of some element, either plasmic or histological, must 

 be accompanied or followed by an elimination of more or less char- 

 acteristic products which would be a sign of the pathological condi- 

 tion of the patient. To support this theory he examined a number 

 of pathological urines, and succeeded in obtaining from them basic 

 substances, some of which were poisonous, others not. Thus, a 

 specimen of urine from a patient with progressive paralysis gave two 

 bases strongly resembling nicotin and coniin ; from other patholog- 

 ical urines the bases obtained usually had either an ammoniacal or 

 trimethylamin odor. It is well to note that in normal urine am- 

 monia and trimethylamin are present, while organic bases, as pepto- 

 toxin, are absent (Stadhagen). Selmi proposed to designate the basic 

 substances found in disease as pathoamins. The term urotoxin is 

 likewise sometimes employed to designate the urine poison. A 

 strong confirmation of Selmi's theory is seen in the observations 

 made by Bouchard, VilliSrs, Lupine, Gautier, and others, all of whom 

 apparently have found basic substances in the urine of various dis- 

 eases. 



Thus, Bouchard asserted the presence in normal urine of two bases, 

 one soluble in ether, the other insoluble in ether, but soluble in 

 chloroform. By the extraction of urine from typhoid fever, pneu- 

 monia, pleuritis, and icterus with ether he obtained substances that 

 gave alkaloidal reactions. Lgpine and Gu6rin likewise extracted 

 alkaline urine with ether and obtained a poisonous substance. The 

 extracts from pathological urines were more poisonous than those 

 from normal urine, and the typhoid extract reacted differently from 

 that of pneumonia. Villi6rs found the basic substances, as a rule, 

 in pneumonia, tuberculosis, abscesses, but absent in tetanus. In all 

 these cases only extracts were employed, the substance not being 

 isolated in a degree of purity and in amount sufficient for analysis. 

 It is comparatively easy (from the result of the application of the 

 so-called alkaloidal tests) to report upon the presence of alkaloids in 

 so complex a fluid as the urine. It is vastly more difficult, however, 

 to isolate such bodies in a chemically pure condition, thus satisfying 

 the requirements of exact research. 

 30 



