Volume 1

A text-book of physiology / by Henry P. Bowditch [and others] ; edited by William H. Howell.

Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: A text-book of physiology / by Henry P. Bowditch [and others] ; edited by William H. Howell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    543/608 (page 539)
    Dimethyl Ketone, or Acetone, CH3COCH3.—This is found normally in the blood and urine, and in especially large quantities in patients suffering from an abnormally large decomposition of fat (see p. 537). During the first day of starvation by Cetti, the starvation artist, the amount of acetone in the urine rose to forty-eight times that of the day previous.^ It may like- wise appear in the breath, giving a characteristic odor. Acetone is a product of the dry distillation of tartaric and citric acids, of wood, and of sugar. Oxidized, acetone yields acetic and formic acids, whereas, treated with hydro- gen, it is resolved into secondary propyl alcohol. When acetone is in the urine it is also found in the intestinal canal and in the feces, probably by pas- sage through the intestinal wall. Butyl Compounds. Normal Butyric Acid, CH3CH2CH2COOH.—Butyric acid was first found in butter, combined with glycerin. When free it gives the rancid odor to butter, and likewise contributes to the odor of sweat. It has been detected in the spleen, in the blood, and in the urine, but usually only in traces. As a pro- duct of putrefaction of proteid, and especially of carbohydrates, it is found in the intestines and in the stomach when the acidity is insufficient to be bacteri- cidal. It contributes to the unpleasant taste after indigestion, through the return of a small portion of the chyme to the mouth. In cheese it is a product of the putrefaction of casein. If starch, sugar, or dextrin be treated with water, calcium carbonate, and foul cheese, the carbohydrates are slowly converted into a mass of calcium lactate. On further standing the lactic acid is resolved into butyric acid : 2CH3CHOHCOOH = CsH^COOH + 4H + CO2. Lactic acid. Calcium salts are found to putrefy more readily than others, and the carbon- ate is added above to neutralize any acids formed in the putrefactive process which might inhibit the action of the spores. This same fermentation takes place in the intestinal tract. Iso-butyl Alcohol, [QB.,]^: CH.CH^OH.—This is found in fusel oil. Iso-butyric Acid, (€113)2: CH.COOH.—This is a product of proteid putrefaction and is found in tlie feces. Pentyl Compounds. Iso-pentyl Alcohol, or Amyl Alcohol, (CH3).2CHCH2CH20H.—This is the principal constituent of fusel oil, prodvicing the after-effects of distilled-liquor intoxication. The poisonous dose in the dog per kilogram for the different alcohols has been found to be—for ethyl alcohol 5-6 grams, for propyl alcohol 3 grams, for butyl alcohol 1.7 grams, for amyl alcohol 1.5 grams' (see p. 535). Iso-pentoic or Iso-valerianic Acid, (0113)20 HCHgCOOH.—This is found in cheese, in the sweat of the foot, likewise in the urine in small-pox, in typhus, and in acute atrophy of the liver. It is a product of proteid putrefaction, and has a most unpleasant odor. 1 Fr. Miiller : Berliner kUnisehe Wochensehrift, 1887, S. 428. ^ Dujardin-Beaumetz et Audige : Comptes rendus, t. 81, p. 19.