284 



Mr. A. M. Gossage. On the 



[June 7, 



is, next to proteid, the most widely distributed substance in the 

 animal organism. As Hammarsten has well said, " it has been found 

 wherever it has been looked for." Whenever I have stated that lecithin 

 is present in any fibrinogen, I have prepared it and tested for it in 

 the way I have previously repeatedly described in the papers Dr. 

 Halliburton quotes. 



IV. The criticisms which Dr. Halliburton passes upon my dis- 

 covery that tissue fibrinogens cause intravascular clotting when 

 injected into the living circulation, can hardly be regarded seriously ; 

 for he asserts that the tissue fibrinogen is a slimy mass, and causes 

 clotting by mechanically plugging the vessels, whereas if he had 

 repeated my experiments he would have found (1) that the fibrinogen 

 is not at all slimy, and (2) that it can hardly be supposed to cause 

 clotting mechanically, since it passes through the right heart, then 

 the capillaries of the lungs, next the left heart and aorta, and finally 

 the capillaries of the alimentary canal before it first causes clotting, 

 i.e., in the portal vein in the dog. 



IV. "Note on the Volumetric Determination of Uric Acid." By 

 A. M. GOSSAGE, B.A., Oxon. Communicated by Professor 

 J. Burdon Sanderson, F.E.S. Received May 29, 1888. 



Dr. Haycraft has recently proposed a method for the volumetric 

 determination of uric acid in urine (' Brit. Med. Journ.,' 1885, 2, 

 p. 1100) which has great advantages over all former methods in that it 

 is much quicker and easier to manage. The uric acid from 25 c.c. of 

 urine is precipitated by silver nitrate after previous addition of 

 sodium carbonate (to prevent reduction) and ammonia (to dissolve 

 silver chloride, &c.) ; this precipitate is then collected, washed, and 

 dissolved in nitric acid, and the amount of silver present in this solu- 

 tion ascertained by Volhard's method, i.e., titration with ammonium 

 sulphocyanate ; from this the amount of uric acid can be calculated, 

 " In order to test the accuracy of the process," he says, " I prepared 

 several solutions of acid urate of sodium of known strength. To 

 these I added various quantities of common salt, magnesium sulphate, 

 and phosphate of soda in order to imitate as far as possible the 

 urinary secretion. On estimating the uric acid in these solutions, I 

 obtained wonderfully correct results. In all cases not much more 

 than a milligramme was lost during the process, and may be simply 

 accounted for by the fact that no salt of uric acid is absolutely in- 

 soluble In order further to test its accuracy, 50 c.c. of 



urine were divided into two equal portions ; to the first 25 c.c. of a 

 solution of acid urate of sodium of known strength were added ; to 



