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Scientific Proceedings (127) 



together and found that, in spite of this, benzoic acid was not 

 conjugated with glycocoll but that it was burned in the body of 

 the fowl and the benzoic acid conjugated with ornithine. Un- 

 fortunately this experimenter does not state whether his birds 

 were "well fed" nor does he even mention the type of diet. It 

 seemed worth while to follow up this clue regarding glycocoll 

 synthesis in the organism of the fowl and at the same time we 

 thought it might give some valuable hints as to the difference 

 between the metabolism during fasting and while on a normal 

 diet. We decided to place a few hens on a normal complete diet 

 and then feed them benzoic acid in order to determine whether 

 glycocoll might conjugate with the benzoic acid, thus causing 

 the excretion of hippuric acid and then after investigating this 

 point to take up the point of difference between Thomas and 

 Suga regarding the power of the starving hen to furnish or- 

 nithine for the detoxication of benzoic acid. 



In our work hens were provided with an artificial anus accord- 

 ing to the method of Voeltz. 0 It was found unnecessary to pro- 

 vide the chicken with two different receptacles for urine and 

 feces, as the chickens were seldom able to defecate and had to 

 be given enemas both morning and evening. The urine, on the 

 contrary, while usually a white pasty mass adhering to the feces, 

 was excreted in considerable volume — ranging from 200 to 500 

 c.c. per day. The urine in this case consisted of a white muddy 

 precipitate (uric acid) and a serous-like liquid. The hens were 

 placed in a small metabolism cage provided with a coarse wire 

 screen flooring and drain. The cage was washed at the end of 

 each forty-eight hours with an 0.05 normal solution of sodium 

 hydroxide to remove any traces of organic acids and to wash 

 off, but not dissolve, the uric acid clinging to the parts of the 

 cage. The diluted alkaline urine was then filtered by suction, 

 exactly neutralized and evaporated to dryness at 40° with the 

 aid of an eleectric fan. 



It is claimed that the intestinal tract of the chicken may be 

 completely evacuated in the course of six hours; we, however, 

 found that from the nitrogen determinations made on the urine 

 that only after two days of fasting had a stage of endogenous 

 nitrogen metabolism been reached. 



« Voeltz, W., Handbuch d. Biolog. Arbeitsmcthodcn, 1922, AM. IV, Toil 0, 

 Heft II, 300. 



