43 
In my experiments, alcohol seemed to have but little effect upon 
the percentage of sulphur excreted as neutral sulphur. Thus, in 
Experiment I (see above), the neutral sulphur amounted to 35.5 
per cent of the total sulphur excreted by a normal rabbit. In Expe- 
riment II, after the animal had received alcohol for over two months 
(the diet being otherwise the same), and there had been a marked 
increase m the excretion of ethereal sulphates, the neutral sulphur 
constituted approximately 35 per cent of the total sulphur. Two 
other experiments gave similar results; the percentage of sulphur 
excreted as neutral sulphur varied in the normal rabbit from 32.3 
to 34.3, and in the rabbit receiving alcohol from 30.4 to 31.3 per cent. 
In a case of advanced alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver (man) 7.3 per 
cent of neutral sulphur was found ; this figure is very similar to those 
obtained b}" Folin and Shaffer for men on a high proteid diet. Un- 
fortunately no data as to the diet in this case, which is of such impor- 
tance, are available. 
An increased excretion of neutral sulphur is frequently interpreted 
as indicating a diminution of plwsiological oxidation. Some of the 
arguments for this view are furnished by the work of Reale and 
Boeri,® who found the neutral sulphur of the urine increased when 
the respiration was interfered with mechanically, and by the work of 
Harnack and Kleine ^ on the effects of alkalis and chloral hydrate on 
the excretion of neutral sulphur. The results of ni}^ experiments 
with acetonitrile are probably to be similarly interpreted; in poison- 
ing b}" this substance the percentage of neutral sulphur frequently 
rose from 25 to 65 or more; the total sulphur excretion was not much 
changed but the, oxidized sulphur frequently almost disappeared. 
Part of the increased neutral sulphur was contained in the sulphocy- 
anate formed from the nitrile, but the great decrease in the sulphates 
suggests that physiological oxidations had been lowered by the 
nitrile. Returning to the experiments vfith alcohol: This substance 
did not cause an increase in the excretion of neutral sulphur; this 
ma}" be considered as another argument that alcohol has but a limited 
power of inhibiting ^^physiological oxidations.” 
“Reale and Boeri, Wien. med. Wocli., 1895, p. 1198. 
& Harnack and Kleine, Zeit. f. Biol., v. 37, p. 417; Kleine, Inaug. Hiss., Halle; 1895. 
c Inasmuch as no one seems to have recorded sulphur determinations in the urine of 
guinea pigs it may be of interest to note that these animals, receiving a diet consisting 
largely of carrots and cabbage (as did the rabbits) excreted from 25 to 35 per cent of 
the sulphur as neutral sulphur. This ratio was not changed in animals inoculated 
with tubercle bacilli. 
Kittens receiving a diet of bread and milk excreted from 25 to 30 per cent of the 
sulphur as neutral sulphur. A dog receiving a diet consisting almost entirely of lean 
meat excreted from 23 to 29 per cent of the sulphur as neutral sulphur; one on a diet 
consisting largely of rice, lard, and sugar excreted from 64 to 65 per cent in this form. 
In a case of acute catarrhal jaundice (man) 15 per cent of the sulphur was in the 
neutral form; this figure is lower than that frequently found, but in the absence of 
data .as to diet the figures have not much value. There was 16.4 per cent of ethereal 
sulphates in this case. 
o 
