Diseases of the intestines and peritoneum / by Hermann Nothnagel ; edited, with additions by Humphrey D. Rolleston ; authorized translation from the German, under the editorial supervision of Alfred Stengel.
- Hermann Nothnagel
- Date:
- 1904
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Diseases of the intestines and peritoneum / by Hermann Nothnagel ; edited, with additions by Humphrey D. Rolleston ; authorized translation from the German, under the editorial supervision of Alfred Stengel. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![per cent, of the dried feces. The quantity and sohibility of food are factors in the formation of starch. Very little is kn^own about the inorganic constituents of human feces. Under mixed diet the percentage of fecal ash varies between 11 and 15 per cent. (Ranke, Praussnitz, Grundzach). With milk diet this rises between 27 and 35 per cent, of the dried feces (Rubner, Fr. Miiller), almost three times as high as under mixed diet. On a meat diet the feces contain from 13 to 16 per cent, of ash. There are on record two analyses of feces dating back to 1840—50 made by Fleitmann and by Porter; also one of more recent date by Grundzach. The results obtained were the following. One hundred parts of ash contained : Constituents. Fleitmann. Porter. Grundzach. Sodium chlorid 0.58 4.33 ) q oaa Potassium chlorid 0.07 ... J Potassium oxid 18.49 6.10 12.000 Sodium oxid 0.75 5.07 3.821 Calcium oxid 21.36 26.46 29.250 Magnesium oxid 10.67 10.50 7.570 Ferric oxid 2.09 2.50 2.445 Phosphoric acid 80.98 36.03 13.760 [PA] Sulphuric acid . .■. 1.13 3.13 0.653 [SO3] Silicic acid 1.44 ... 0.052 [SiO] Sand 7.39 30.00 4.460 It will be noticed that the quantities of phosphoric and sulphuric acids found by Fleitmann and Porter differ greatly from those found by Grundzach. This is due to the fact that their methods of analysis were different. The first-named investigators incinerated the undigested particles of food, like albumin, lecithin, nuclein, etc., and in this way obtained higher figures for phosphoric and sulphuric acid. Grundzach, on the other hand, determined the sulphuric acid, the phosphoric acid, and the chlorin in the powdered feces and not in the ash, and conse- quently obtained smaller values. From these analyses it will be seen that 22.13 per cent, of all the alkalis contained in the feces are combined with mineral acids, and that 77.87 per cent, are combined with organic acids and with carbonic acid. This is due to the fact that the secretion of the large intestine neutral- izes the acid contents of the small intestine (Nencki and Sieber). According to the investigations of Brauneck, ammonia is always present in small quantities in the feces of healthy subjects. On a milk diet and on a mixed diet 0.0408 gram of ammonia is excreted daily, and dried feces contain 0.151 per cent, of NH.^. [Ury has shown that the calcium in the feces is derived from the food and not from the secretions and excretions of the intestines. It therefore follows that calcium derived from metabolism of the fixed tissues leaves the body by the urine.—Ed.] LITERATURE. Abelmann, Diss., Doi-pat, 1890. Baginsky, A., Zeitschr. f. phys. Chem., 1882, vol. vii. Balke, ibid., vol. xxii., p. 248. Bernard, C, Lepons des physiolog. exp^rim., etc., Paris, 1856. 3](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21170010_0041.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
