at Home and Abroad . 
99 
1877.] 
specimens of human urine, and find the above statement to 
be without foundation. Schunck, on whose researches this 
statement was originally based, obtained from indigoferas a 
principle which on treatment with acids split up into indigo- 
blue on the one hand and sugar on the other. It was 
therefore supposed to be a glucoside which furnished these 
matters. Subsequently, by suitable treatment, he claimed 
to have demonstrated the presence of a similar substance in 
normal urine. To this substance was given the name of 
indican ; but its presence in urine at any time is extremely 
doubtful, for in the first place no such substance has ever 
been isolated from urine, and, in the second place, when 
that blue colour is obtained which is supposed to be charac- 
teristic of indigo-blue and referable to indican, side by side 
with it sugar is not produced . When a solution is obtained 
which exercises a reducing action on Fehling’s copper solu- 
tion, there is every reason to believe the case abnormal in 
some respect. When urine is treated with its own volume 
of hydrochloric acid, a blackish precipitate falls on standing, 
and this, after extraction with dilute acid and then with ab- 
solute alcohol, is said to leave indigo-blue upon the filter. 
We have rarely met with cases when any blue is obtained, 
and when it has been obtained it has amounted to little 
more than a stain. But it will be evident that in any case 
it is not justifiable to speak of indican as a never-failing 
constituent of urine. Further, the name should no longer 
be retained, for if indican be a glucoside, and if the blue 
colour from urine be unattended by sugar, then at least the 
substance in the urine cannot be indican. 
It is pleasant to be able to speak in eulogistic terms of 
Dr. L. Brunton’s clear and succinct account of the bodies 
known in chemistry as albuminous. Such a task is as diffi- 
cult as it is unthankful, for arranged under this heading 
there are almost endless forms of matter which, having 
many characters in common, have such complicated mole- 
cular constitution that hitherto it has defied the attempts of 
all who have worked upon the subject, to construct a formula 
for any one of them which is entitled to absolute acceptance. 
But it will ultimately be found possible to assign such a 
general constitutional formula to these substances that, while 
it may characterise no one individual body, it shall yet in- 
clude and represent all. In this direction the researches of 
Schiitzenberger on the albumens, and Sullivan in other 
directions, encourage us in the hope that the day is not far 
distant when this may be accomplished. 
We are strengthened in this conviction by our increased 
