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

  • Arthur Leared
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.

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    'bumen, which, as the process of vivification proceeds, enters into corn- el nation with iron, which originally exists in the yolk. The presence of a sulphocyanide in saliva must be referred to one of * ro sources. It is either an exclusive product of the secretion itself, or it ■' nreviously exists in the blood and is extracted from it as a component of • <ie saliva. The amount of sulphocyanide found in different analyses IK \ries greatly; my own results show only about half a grain in twenty < iumces of saliva from a healthy subject. This nearly agrees with the ; Observations of Bidder and Schmidt. Wright makes the quantity very i Much greater. If we take the estimate at only half a grain in twenty I Ounces of saliva, and reckon this to be the quantity of the secretion swallowed I fi i twenty-four hours, the salt might be probably found in the blood and I 11 the urine. If, however, my experiments have been rightly interpreted, it is certain jt iat sulphocyanide of potassium or sodium is not a mere product of the salivary glands. We have seen that it is found in the blood of all orders Iff vertebrate animals, and we know that fish do not possess salivary organs. lASSuming that it is extracted out of the blood, what is its use in the saliva ? Considering its composition, it seemed possible that it acted either as an i ntiseptic or else as an agent which prevented fermentation in the ali- mentary canal, and thus indirectly aided digestion. The conditions which favour the fermentation of saccharine matter, tamely, acidity and the proper temperature, are constantly present in the itomach. Is sulphocyanide of potassium in saliva destined to check his fermentation, which, under favourable circumstances, may occur in ‘ess than an hour? Carefully conducted experiments proved that it neither possesses the mower of preventing ordinary fermentation nor that of checking it when already in action. We shall now see what is its action in preventing putrefaction. Two oqual portions of roast mutton were placed, the one in water, and the 5 >ther in the same quantity of a solution of sulphocyanide of potassium of hhe strength of 1 grain of the salt to 1 ounce of water. After some »veeks the meat which had lain in water was found to be broken up into bhreds, and was quite putrid; that in the sulphocyanide solution was imerely softened, and had a sour smell, but was not putrid. Sulphocyanide of potassium, therefore, possesses an antiseptic power; f’but whether or not this property comes into operation in the alimentary canal is a question I cannot now decide. I have made many quantitative analyses to determine the amount of •sulphocyanide eliminated with the urine in various diseases, including typhus, typhoid, and scarlet fever. Not to enter into details at present, it will be sufficient to state what the results showed with much uniformity. In all diseases in which wast- ing of the body was marked, the excretion in the urine of a sulplio-
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