CHANGES IN THE MATERNAL ORGANISM 507 



explains it by his hypothesis of the presence of placental con- 

 stituents in the maternal circulation. Metabolic investigations 

 in pregnancy complicated by albuminuria show nothing charac- 

 teristic (Magnus-Levy ^). 



A special constituent of the urine may be found during the 

 puerperium. Though called peptone (Fischel 2), it really con- 

 sists of deutero-albumoses which arise from the involution, 

 i.e. autolysis, of the uterus (Langstein and Neubauer ^). As with 

 similar proteins introduced subcutaneously, the organism has 

 not the power of splitting them up, and they are excreted un- 

 changed. Fischel stated that peptonuria might also occur in 

 pregnancy ; but this was disproved by Thomson,* who also 

 showed that a puerperal peptonuria did not regularly exist. 

 Ehrstrom ^ regards it as a certain indication of fever and sepsis, 

 the peptone being contained in the leucocytes of the purulent 

 lochia. 



As a result of the involution of the uterus, creatin may also 

 appear in the urine. Murhn * kept a dog on a creatin-free diet 

 during the last week of pregnancy. The creatinin output was 

 constant, but creatin appeared two days before parturition. 

 It reached a maximum five days after labour — the period when 

 the involution processes reach their height. 



D. The Carbohydrate Metabolism in Pregnancy 



a. The Absorption of Carbohydrates by the Mother. — The 

 starch digestion is said to be retarded in the stomach during 

 pregnancy (Kehrer ''). Little is known regarding the absorp- 

 tion of carbohydrates, but there is evidence of a tendency to 



' Magnus-Levy, see v. Noorden, loc. cit. 



'■ Fischel, "PeptongehaltderLoohien,"^rcA./. Gynah. ,vo]s.xxiv. andxxvi. 



' Langstein and Neubauer, " Autolyse des puerperalen Uterus," Munch. 

 med. Woch., 1902. 



^ Thomson (H.), " tieber Peptonurie in der Sohwangersohaft und im 

 Woohenbett," Deutsche med. Woch., 1889. 



' Ehrstrom, " Puerperale Peptonurie," Arch. /. Gyndk., vol. Ixiii., 1901. 



" Mnrlin, "Protein Metabolism in Development," Amer. Journ. of Phys., 

 vol. xxiii., 1908-9. 



' Kehrer, Die physiologischen und pathologischen Beziehungen der 

 Weiblichen Sexuidorgane zum Tractus Intestinalis, Berlin, 1905. 



