35 
II. 
THE EFFECT OF ALCOHOL UPON THE SULPHUR OF THE URINE. 
1. Efiect of alcohol upon the excretion of ethereal sulphates . — The fol- 
lowing experiments, although very incomplete, seem worth recording, 
for they bring out an action of alcohol which has apparently been but 
seldom jioticed. Briefly stated, it is shovm that the excretion of 
ethereal sulphates in the urine may be increased many times, both 
absolutely and relatively to the inorganic sulphates, by the adminis- 
tration, continued for some time, of alcohol. It was found, for exam- 
ple, that their absolute amount might be increased in the rabbit from 
8 or 9 milligrams per day to over 100 milligrams, while the percentage 
of sulphuric acid excreted in this form might increase from 3 or 4 to 50. 
There are a few statements in the literature on alcohol which might 
have suggested that such a result would be found. Edsall,® for ex- 
ample, found the urine in a number of cases of chi'onic alcoholism 
to contain large amounts of phenol, a substance usually excreted in 
combination with sulphuric acid; he was inclined to regard this as an 
indication that the liver had been injured by alcohol and so was 
unable to destroy as much phenol as normally.^ De Schweinitz and 
Edsall ^ reported a number of cases of tobacco-alcohol amblyopia in 
which there were present in the urine abnormal amounts of indican, 
phenol, and of total ethereal sulphates; they concluded that toxic sub- 
stances produced in the digestive tract probably have a part in the 
production of this form of amblyopia. 
Herter in his Lectures on Chemical Pathology (p. 161) suggested 
that the gastritis^ and motor disturbances following the abuse of alco- 
hol may lead to increased putrefaction and that the products of the 
latter uifhct injuries to the liver wliich may ultimately be a factor in 
the production of cuThosis of the liver. 
Experimental .^ — The experiments were performed upon rabbits. 
The alcohol was introduced into the stomach by means of a soft rubber 
«Univ. of Penn. Med. Bull., v. 16, p. 436; 1903-4. 
& That narcotic drugs may inhibit the ability of the liver to transform phenol was 
shown by Herter and Wakeman (Jour. Exper. Med., v. 4, p. 322; 1899), who found that 
less phenol could be recovered, by distillation, from the liver of a normal animal than 
from one which had been anaesthetized for a long time. 
cAmer. Jour. Med. Sci., v. 126, p. 216; 1903. 
Jagie (Wien. klin. Woch., v. 19, p. 1058; 1906) found alcoholic gastritis and enteritis 
as the initial symptoms of cirrhosis of the liver in a large number of cases. 
«A number of the earlier sulphate determinations in these experiments were made 
by Mr. M. B. Porch, formerly assistant in pharmacology, to whom I wish to express my 
thanks. 
