SUGAR IN THE URINE OF THE HORSE. 127 
black oxide only is formed/ 5 This test has been called 
Trommer’s. 
Lately, Briicke has asserted that sugar is always present in 
urine, and therefore it is a normal constituent of that secretion. 
With a view to test the correctness of this position, Dr. 
Bence Jones read a paper on this subject at a meeting of the 
Chemical Society a short time since, and his principal con¬ 
clusions were as follow : 
“ Lehmann’s process for detecting sugar in the urine by extracting the 
evaporated residue with absolute alcohol, and precipitating the sugar there¬ 
from in the form of potash sugar, by means of alcoholic potash, cannot be 
employed when small quantities of sugar are present in large quantities of 
urine. The process of fermentation is stopped by the residue of the urine, 
by much urea, and still more decidedly by oxalate of urea. Half a grain of 
sugar in water can be detected by the alcohol produced, and may be estimated 
by the carbonic acid produced ; but much larger quantities may be entirely 
overlooked in concentrated urine. In decolorising urine for examination in 
the polarising saccharometer some sugar is always lost. Animal charcoal 
removes sugar in proportion to the amount of charcoal used. This sugar 
may be recovered by washing with boiling water. Two thirds of the 
sugar in urine may be lost by Robiquet’s method of decolorising with basic 
acetate of lead and ammonia. Pettenkofer’s test for sugar bv means of 
cholic or glvcocholic acid and sulphuric acid is the most delicate known. 
Two thirds of a milligramme may be detected in a little distilled water, and 
the presence of a small amount of urinary colouring matter does not affect 
the reaction. Trommer’s test with sulphate of copper and potash is 
capable of discovering -^t\\ of a per cent, of sugar in urine, but when very 
small quantities of sugar are in solution with muriate of ammonia or urea, 
the reduction of the oxide is not perceived. Briicke’s alcohol process was 
not found to be satisfactory, but his lead process furnished excellent results. 
The urine is precipitated first with neutral acetate of lead, then with basic 
acetate of lead, and lastly with ammonia. The ammoniacal precipitate con¬ 
tains the sugar which is extracted by treating the precipitate with oxalic 
acid, or preferably by sulphuretted hydrogen. By Briicke’s process one 
seventh of a grain of sugar added to 200 cubic centimetres of urine could 
be detected, and two thirds of all the sugar added could be recovered. 
Moreover, the sugar is obtained free from salts, so that it can be fermented, 
and free from colour, so that it may be examined by the saccharometer. 
The presence of sugar could be readily ascertained by this process in ]000 
cubic centimetres of urine. The sugar separated by Briicke’s process from 
1000 cubic centimetres of the urine of a healthy man was estimated by the 
reduction test to vary from 1*4 to 2'2 grains, and in that of another man to 
vary from 2‘3 to 3‘0 grains. The sugar separated from 5000 cubic centi¬ 
metres of the urine of one healthy man gave from seven to eight degrees of 
rotation in the saccharometer, and that of another healthy man from ten to 
eleven degrees. The sugar extracted from 14,000 cubic centimetres of 
healthy uriue yielded by fermentation P8 grain of carbonic acid, together 
with a recognisable quantity of alcohol. These and other experiments fully 
confirmed Briicke’s statement as to the habitual presence of sugar in healthy 
urine, lienee diabetes must be regarded as an exaggeration of a healthy 
state, and not as a distinct and peculiar condition of the system.” 
Of course the above statement applies to man. But have 
we been so observant as we might, and perhaps ought to 
