Search

A simple paper chromatographic method was found to be effective for the study of phenylketonuria and tyrosyluria. It proved to be much more reliable than conventional tests for the detection of abnormal amounts of ketoacids in urine and was suitable and convenient for following the effects of dietary variations on the excretion of these compounds. Information obtained about ketones other than those of primary importance to the conditions studied included confirmation of the excretion of p-hydroxyphenylpyruvic acid in phenylketonuria. A modification of the method applicable to histidinaemia was devised.

A method for the determination of urinary normetadrenaline and metadrenaline is described whereby these 3-O-methoxy metabolites of noradrenaline and adrenaline are separated by paper chromatography before estimation by Pisano's method. Results in 80 normal subjects are given.

Simple paper chromatography of urine obtained in the Figlu test has been found satisfactory for determining excess excretion of the imidazole metabolites of histidine. It has been confirmed that examination for these in addition to formiminoglutamic acid is necessary for a full assessment of this test. When excretion of the latter is not abnormal in folic-acid and/or vitamin B(12) deficiency, that of urocanic acid, a glycine conjugate of urocanic acid and/or imidazole propionic acid, is usually raised. An abnormally high excretion of hydantoin-5-propionic acid after histidine has also been found in these deficiencies, and its estimation may be of additional use in the evaluation of the Figlu test.

The protein and lipid electrophoresis patterns of lymph and various body fluids have been examined. Chylous fluids produce a characteristic lipid pattern with a dense deposit at the origin and a lipid trail. The value of centrifuging turbid fluids at high speed before electrophoresis is stressed.

A paper chromatographic analysis in 60 patients with muscular dystrophy from 49 families and in 351 of their relatives showed a high incidence of generalized hyperaminoaciduria in both patients and relatives. There was a higher incidence of threoninuria in patients and their relatives than in controls. One family was found to have excess histidinuria and another excess lysinuria.

Paper tests for occult blood were assessed on faecal specimens from adults. An orthotolidine/sodium perborate and a modified orthotolidine/peroxide test were found to be reasonably satisfactory. The Hematest and Occultest tablets and a paper guaiac test were unsatisfactory.A large number of false positive results was obtained in children and infants. It is suggested that this might be due to meat derivatives reaching the faeces more easily in the young. Red cells labelled with either Cr(51) or Fe(59) were swallowed by human volunteers. Although between 45% and 73% of the red cell iron reappeared in the faeces, the peroxidase activity of the labelled material dropped six-fold on passage through the alimentary canal.

Since the wax, investigations of virus diseases have been in many directions remarkably fruitful, and the experi mental methods employed have been pursued with such intensity in particular instances that the results have illuminated many hitherto obscure problems concerning the interaction of host tissue with parasites, both visible and invisible. Intimate tissue changes have also received their full measure of attention. I emphasize this point because it has been said, with considerable truth, that the advent of the bacteriological era, with the possibility of demonstrating the causative agents of infectious disease in the tissues, has had the effect of withdrawing attention from the minute histological study of the interaction between host and parasite. The early phases of this interaction are still little understood.

The " Sowers " The reign of these sowers, as we may with justification term them, extended over some forty years, from 1830 to 1870, so that we can still turn with pleasure and profit to the writings of Sir T. Ranald Martin, F.R.S. (1793-1874), a surgeon on the Bengal medical establishment of the Company. He is chiefly known for his edition of James Johnson's book on the Influence of Tropical Climates in producing the Acute Endemic.Diseases of Europeans (1861). This book, which, as Balfour remarks, is too fond of calomel, gives an accurate idea of the state of medical knowledge at that particular time. Sir James Annesley, who flourished from 1780.to 1847, produced one of the most remarkable and beautifully illustrated of medical works in his Researches into the Cause,, Nature, arid Treat ment of the more Prevalent Diseases of India, and of Warm Climates Generally (1828). For accuracy of clinical observation this work has rarely been surpassed, and one still recognizes the characteristic lesions of amoebic and bacillary dysentery, though these two diseases are inextric ably confounded in the absence of accurate aetiological knowledge of what he so aptly terms " intertropical diseases."