Can Fasting Fowls Synthesize Glycocoll? 125 



Color standards of Brom Cresol Green were unaffected after 

 several months' exposure in test tubes to usual laboratory con- 

 ditions, while similar standards of methyl red had faded irregu- 

 larly and become totally useless. Brom Cresol Green may be 

 used directly in a bacteriological culture medium, for instance, 

 while this would be out of the question for methyl red. 



62 (2022) 



Can fasting fowls synthesize glycocoll or ornithine? 

 By JESSE G. M BULLOWA and CARL P. SHERWIN. 



[From Fordham University, Research Laboratory, Neiv York City] 



According to Suga 1 ''starving hens (unlike well-fed birds) 

 are unable to synthesize hippuric acid from benzoic acid and 

 glycocoll ; they conjugate injested benzoic acid with ornithine 

 into ornithuric acid and excrete the latter compound." This is 

 contrary to other authors, as Thomas 2 found that chickens kept 

 on an inadequate diet could not even produce ornithine for con- 

 jugation with benzoic acid. Crowdle aand Sherwin 3 found that 

 hens on a carbohydrate diet were able to synthesize ornithine 

 under these conditions but found no glycocoll compounds; in 

 other studies 4 where chickens were fed toxic organic compounds 

 such as were detoxicated in the animal body by union with 

 glycocoll, no combination with glycocoll was ever found. They 

 concluded that glycocoll was never used by the chicken for de- 

 toxication purposes and these results were corroborated by the 

 work of Yoshikawa" 5 who fed chickens benzoic acid and glycocoll 



1 Suga, T., Kyoto Igaku Zasshi, 1919, rr, 225; Jap. Med. Lit., 1920, v, 46; 

 Chem. Abstracts, 1921, xv. 881. 



2 Thomas, K., CcntraJblatt f. Physiol., 1914, xxviii, 769. 



3 Crowdle, J. H., and Sherwin, C. P. Results unpublished. 



* Sherwin, Carl P., and Crowdle, Jas. H., Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol, axp Med., 

 1922, xix, 318. 



5 Yoshikawa, J.. Zeit. Physiol. Chem., 1910, lxviii, 79. 



