On the occurrence and detection of haematoporphyrin in the urine / by A.E. Garrod.

  • Garrod, Archibald Edward, 1857-1936.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the occurrence and detection of haematoporphyrin in the urine / by A.E. Garrod. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    contention. He also added several fresh diseases to the list of those in which the pigment is met with in the urine. In the same year (1889) Stockvis1 described a colouring matter found by him in the urine of an elderly woman, who had taken sulphonal. The urine had a deep red colour, and the pigment contained in it yielded spectra practically the same as those of hsematoporphyrin. Nevertheless, on account of its behaviour to certain solvents of that substance, Stockvis concluded that it could not be identical with it. In 1890, Ranking and Pardington2 added two fresh observations to the series. Both cases occurred in the same house, and both patients were females who exhibited obscure nervous symptoms, but are not stated to have taken sulphonal. The urines, which had a deep red colour, were examined by Russell, MacMunn and Copeman3 who agreed in pronouncing the colouring- matter to be hsematoporphyrin, or a closely allied pigment. In the same year Vaughan Harley4 described two somewhat similar cases, but the spectroscopic appearances in the second case, which alone are recorded, are puzzling if, as seems probable, these were examples of hsematoporphyrinuria. Both patients had taken sulphonal. In 1891, Salkowski5 described in detail the chemical and spectro- scopic examinations of the dark red urines of three patients, all of whom had taken sulphonal. Salkowski discussed the methods which had been found most satisfactory for the separation of the pigment present in the urines, which he regarded as identical with the hasmatoporphyrin of Nencki and Sieber, having conducted a series of control experiments with normal urine to which that variety of the pigment bad been added. He was inclined to attribute the presence of the pigment to the administration of sulphonal. A few months later Hammersten'1 published the results of the examination of the urine of four more patients, all of whom had been treated with sulphonal. His efforts were mainly directed to the isolation of the hasmatoporphyrin from the urine in a state of purity; and they were rewarded by success in obtaining it in a crystalline form in two cases; the crystals obtained 1 Nederland. Tijdsclirift voor Geneeskunde, 1889, n. p. 413. 2 Lancet, 1890, n. p. 607. 3 Trans. Path. Soc. xlii. 1891, p. 364. 4 Brit. Med. Journal, 1890, ii. p. 1169. 5 Zeitsclirift f. Physiol. Chemie, 1891, xv. p. 286. 8 Ujisala Lalcarefi/renings Forhandlingar, 1891, xxv. and xxvi. Skandinavische Archiv f. Physiol., 1891, iii. p. 319.
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