56 
Acetone  in  Body. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
(     January,  1921. 
saturated  aqueous  solution  of  ammonium  sulphate.  It  is  then 
brought  into  solution  by  the  addition  of  alcohol,  after  removing  the 
water,  filtered,  and  the  alcoholic  filtrate  is  evaporated  to  dryness. 
The  product  thus  obtained  still  contains  traces  of  ammonium  sul- 
phate, which  can  be  removed  by  means  of  neutral  lead  acetate, 
which  does  not  precipitate  the  ipecacuanhic  acid,  and  then  using 
lead  subacetate  and  sulphuretted  hydrogen.  It  occurs  as  a  reddish, 
amorphous,  very  hygroscopic  powder,  with  a  bitter  taste,  soluble  in 
water,  alcohol,  and  ether.  With  ferric  chloride  it  yields  a  green 
coloration,  which  changes  into  violet  on  the  addition  of  ammonia. 
The  author  found  that  ipecacuanha  root  contains  from  3  to  4  per 
cent,  of  ipecacuanhic  acid,  and  further  that  the  various  official 
alcoholic  preparations  of  this  drug  contain  the  total  amount  of  acid 
present  in  the  drug. 
THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  ACETONE  IN  THE  BODY* 
In  certain  conditions,  both  physiologic  and  pathologic,  acetone 
may  be  present  in  the  organism  in  amounts  not  negligible.  At 
times  it  becomes  a  matter  of  considerable  importance  to  obtain 
dependable  information  about  them.  While  it  is  circulating  in  the 
blood  stream,  acetone  may  appear  in  the  urine  and  expired  air. 
The  view  that  the  acetone  substance — acetone,  aceto-acetic  acid  and 
beta-oxybutyric  acid — are  derived  in  large  part  from  improper  and 
incomplete  metabolism  of  fats  in  the  body  has  been  generally 
accepted.  The  importance  of  careful  observations  of  ketosis,  as 
well  as  the  abnormalities  of  carbohydrate  transformation  in  the 
organism  of  the  diabetic,  is  daily  being  better  appreciated  by  dis- 
criminating clinicians,  so  that  perversions  in  the  metabolism  of  fat 
are  receiving  far  more  attention  than  in  the  past.  There  is  no  more 
potent  agency  in  the  prevention  of  ketosis  and  the  acidosis  related 
to  it  than  the  withdrawal  of  fat  from  the  diet,  wherefore  Joslin  1 
*From  Jour.  Amer.  Med.  Assoc.,  Nov.  6,  1920. 
1  Joslin,  E.  P.:  ''Treatment  of  Diabetes  Mellitus,"  Philadelphia,  1917,  p. 
281. 
