SULPHO-CONJUGATION AS TEST OF HEPATIC FUNCTION. 73 



propagation certain families, which were more resistant to certain 

 diseases or which were naturally more prolific or otherwise favored 

 by accidental conditions began numerically to preponderate in 

 later generations. In some cases such families or substrains 

 differed in their tumor rate from the main strain and thus as a 

 result of selection within a strain differences in the tumor rate 

 appeared in the course of continued inbreeding. 



Our further investigations confirmed and still further empha- 

 sized our previous conclusion that on the whole in the mice with a 

 higher tumor rate the tumors appear at a relatively earlier age 

 than in those strains in which the tumor rate is lower. 



153 (i33i) 



Sulpho-conjugation as a test of hepatic function. 



By Max Kahn. 



[From the Department of Laboratories, Beth Israel Hospital, New 



York.] 



It was demonstrated by Baumann and others that the toxic 

 carbocyclic radicals split off from the proteins by the growth of 

 intestinal bacteria are conjugated in the liver with sulphuric acid 

 and thus detoxicated. It is also known that a portion of these 

 aryl compounds are detoxicated by conjugation with glycuronic 

 acid. 



It is obvious that in testing for the functional capacity of the 

 liver it is essential not only to test the glycogenic, ureogenic, 

 biligenic etc., functions, but also to examine the detoxicating 

 power of the hepatic tissue, in order to ascertain the complete 

 working power of the gland. This is done in the following manner : 

 The patient receives a dose of castor oil to evacuate his bowels. 

 He is then kept on a known diet for two days, during which time 

 the urine is collected, preserved and analyzed for total sulphur and 

 ethereal sulphates. On the third day the patient receives a cap- 

 sule containing 0.5 gm. thymol. The urine is collected for the 

 next two days, preserved, and again analyzed for total sulphur and 

 for ethereal sulphates. 



If all the thymol were absorbed, and if all the thymol were 



