On the power of the liver to convert urates into urea / by Sir Lauder Brunton and T.J. Bokenham.

  • Brunton, Thomas Lauder, Sir, 1844-1916.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On the power of the liver to convert urates into urea / by Sir Lauder Brunton and T.J. Bokenham. 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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    wt/x* vu. /3» Ji By Sir Lauder Brunton, M. D., D. Sc., L. L. D., F. R. S., and T. J. Bokenham, M. R. C. S. In 1860 it was observed by Stockvis, (Donders’ Archiv. 1860, p. 260), that on warming the alkaline urates with portions of finely divided liver, a large proportion of uric acid disappears and is replaced by urea. From this observation he suggested that the metamorphosis of uric acid into urea is largely carried out by the liver. This suggestion, which was quoted in the earlier physiological text-books, has apparently lately been to some extent forgotten, and it seemed worth while to make a reinvestigation of the matter in a fresh series of experiments. For this purpose the livers of cats which had been recently fed were isolated, and were freed from blood by the artificial circulation, at low pressure, of distilled water. The organs were then minced, the weighed product being next mixed with clean sand and Kieselguhr and subjected to prolonged trituration by revolv- ing metal blades, in order to thoroughly secure the liberation of intracellular juices. To eliminate the possibility of alteration through rise of temperature, the containing vessel was kept surrounded by a refrigerating mixture. The juice was next separated by means of strong pressure and mixed with an equal amount of a saturated solution of sodium silicofluoride (to arrest any bacterial action). Attempts were first made to determine the percentage of urea, as such, present in samples of this juice, but the technical difficulties led us to abandon 'such a plan in favour of its estimation, as nitrogen, by the hypobromite method. Our results were as follows: J z