On the presence of sulphocyanides in the blood and urine / by Arthur Leared.

  • Leared, Arthur, 1822-1879.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the presence of sulphocyanides in the blood and urine / by Arthur Leared. 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.

    5/8 (page 19)
    869.] the Blood and Urine. tr'.rinary solutions), the red colour is no longer destroyed by the mercurial , olution. Since, then, these difficulties are capable of removal, the argument by lie method of exclusion in favour of the red colour being due to sulpho- yanide of iron appears conclusive. There is in fact no other source from , vhich the red colour could proceed in the process by which the urine was decolorized by milk of lime. Some salt of sulphocyanic acid must, then, be admitted to be a com- . lonent of the urine. For the detection of the salt it is only necessary to evaporate eight Vi)unces of urine in a water-bath. If milk of lime be employed as the .decolorizing agent which, for reasons already stated, is to be preferred, hhe urine should be concentrated to a thick syrup. In the present stage of my inquiries many details are purposely omitted, jiarticularly those which refer to the quantitative determination of the i.ulphocyanide in many different samples of urine. I may mention, how- V ver, that I found the average quantity present in healthy urine to amount i o about of a grain in sixteen ounces. Since, then, a sylphocyanide was found in the urine, and was previously i .nown to exist in saliva, it was natural to look for it in otlier secretions. 11 was therefore sought for in a large quantity of cow’s milk, and in two i unces of human sweat, but with negative results. Two ounces of pure pus from a cyst on a man’s back were also ex- mined, but no sulphocyanide was found. But as sulphocyanic acid was proved to exist in a secretion from which \may be presumed to enter the blood, and also in an excretion derived ’om the blood, it was to be expected that it would be found in the blood ^',self. The blood operated on was in every instance diluted with an equal part ,t f distilled water. The mixture was then evaporated in a water-bath '.ntil the red colour was altogether lost, and brown coagula, with appa- . ently little fluid, remained. The mass was strained through muslin by rressure of the fingers. The filtrate was then decolorized by one of the r-rocesses already described. Briefly stated, then, it was found that a 11 ulpho-cyanide exists in the blood of man, and in that of the pig, fowl, ■iurbot, salmon, and toad. I also found that when the serum of pig’s blood, procured as free from olour as possible and diluted with an equal portion of water, to prevent omplete coagulation, was treated with a solution of perchloride of iron, it ' ecame red in a marked degree. This result has a special interest, because f : was obtained without any previous chemical manipulation, and the pre- ^ ence of a sulphocyanide was thereby proved. And this curious circum- ► itance was also ascertained. If a few drops of a weak solution of sulpho- [ yanide of potassium be mixed with this reddened and diluted serum, and ' he iron solution is again added, no increase of colour is firoduced. This