Ingestion and excretion of iron in health / by Ralph Stockman.

  • Stockman, Ralph.
Date:
[1897]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ingestion and excretion of iron in health / by Ralph Stockman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Reprinted from the Journal of Physiology. Vol. XXI. No. 1, February 5, 1897. INGESTION AND EXCRETION OF IRON IN HEALTH1. By RALPH STOCKMAN, M.D, F.R.C.P.E., and E. D. W. GREIG, M.B. (Edin.). (From the Laboratory of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.) In a previous paper2 one of us showed that the quantity of metallic iron in ordinary dietaries seldom exceeded 10 milligrams per day, and might be as low as 6 milligrams in people of ordinary appetite and digestion. It was inferred from these results that the iron- metabolism of the body must be very small, and that while the pigment of disintegrated red blood corpuscles is excreted, in part at least, as the colouring matter of bile and urine, their iron is carefully retained in the body for future use. A more systematic series of observations has now enabled us to confirm these opinions and to obtain an accurate record of the amounts of iron taken in the food and excreted in the urine and faeces from day to day. Four series of observations have been made on three persons with healthy digestions and enjoying fair average health. In order to have the intake of iron as unvarying as possible, they were put on a fixed diet for eight or ten days, and on the last three days the total urine and faeces were kept, and the amount of iron present in them deter- mined. The diets and excreta were first thoroughly dried, and then carefully ashed, the iron of the ash being extracted and estimated as in the previous research already referred to. The food used in each observation was all bought at one time and the perishable articles kept in a refrigerator, so that each day's diet might be as uniform as possible. The articles composing the diet were selected largely on account of their comparatively unvarying composition, but these diets were found to contain less iron than an ordinary full mixed dietary does. 1 Towards the expenses of this research a grant was made by the British Medical Association on the recommendation of the Scientific Grants Committee of the Associatujn. 2 This Journal, xvm. 484. 1895.
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