Detoxication in the Fowl. 



319 



or an acid. The acids then are usually detoxicated by being joined 

 with glycocoll, glutamine, ornithine or glycuronic acid, while the 

 alcohols are combined with either the sulphate radical, glycuronic 

 acid or cysteine. Besides this we have methylation of pyridine 

 compounds, acetylation of amino compounds, and the combina- 

 tion of amino compounds to form uramino acids. 



For our work we chose compounds which illustrate type re- 

 actions only and which in some instances undergo entirely differ- 

 ent processes of detoxication in different organisms. 



1. Phenylacetic acid was fed to check up some of the older 

 work, and it was found that in the organism of the dog phenylactic 

 acid is combined with glycocoll and appears in the urine as phen- 

 aceturic acid. In the human organism, however, it is joined with 

 glutamine and is excreted as phenylacetyl-glutamine, and when 

 fed to chickens it is excreted as phenacetornithuric acid, i.e., in 

 combination with ornithine. 



2. Benzaldehyde, both when fed to human beings as well as to 

 lower animals is oxidized to benzoic acid and excreted as hippuric 

 acid. 



We fed a total of 3 gms. to a hen and isolated from the excreta 

 0.5 gm. of ornithuric acid (2 molecules of benzoic acid combined 

 with 1 molecule of ornithine.) 



3. Para-hydroxy benzaldehyde when fed to human beings is 

 oxidized to para-hydroxy benzoic acid and is excreted as such, 

 but when fed to lower animals it is as a rule detoxicated further 

 by being combined with glycocoll and is excreted at least in part 

 as para-hydroxy hippuric acid. The chicken, however, employs 

 the same means of detoxicating this compound as does the human 

 being. 



After feeding 3.6 gms. of para-hydroxy benzaldehyde to a hen 

 we isolated 1.5 gms. para-hydroxy benzoic acid from the excreta 

 but no conjugation product appeared. 



4. Phenylpropionic acid, when fed to animals, undergoes beta 

 oxidation and is converted into benzoic acid. After feeding 2.5 

 gms. of phenylpropionic acid to a hen we extracted from the 

 excreta about 0.5 gm. benzoyl ornithine together with some free 

 benzoic, showing that beta oxidation takes place as readily in the 

 organism of the fowl as in the bodies of other animals. 



