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The nature of the ether reaction of urine
322
THE
JOURNAL
OF
ALLERGY
Cord blood was obtained at birth, and attempts were made to sensitize passively the same normal individuals with this serum. In no instance was this attempt successful. Blood was then obtained from the baby, in some instances before the baby had been put to the breast, and in some instances after five days, to allow the influence of eolostrum feeding. Attempts were made to sensitize passively the same normal individuals with this serum. All results were negative. Tables and protocols are given.
Report II.
on Asthma J. 116:
Research
at Stobhill
Hospital,
Glasgow.
Adam,
J.:
Glasgow
82, 1931.
The report covers the results of eighteen months’ investigation of asthma at Stobhill Hospital. The fact is stated of the presence of eosinophilia in most cases of asthma, and there is a discussion at some length on the means by which the eosinophile count may be raised or lowered. It was suggested by the writer, in a previous communication, that there is an acidotic tendency in asthma. By that is not meant an actual acidosis with a lowering of the P, beyond 7.4, but an abnormal struggle on the part of the organism to maintain the normal balance. Further experience has confirmed that impression. The writer states in a discussion of the alkali reserve in asthma, that never in any adult has he found any evidence for alkalosis. The alkali recerve as estimated by Van Slyke’s method has either been about the lower normal limit or definitely below it. Apparently contradictory findings in children he attributes to the speedier biochemical change which takes place in children. The increase of ammonia-combined acid in the urine at the end of an asthmatic attack and the chloride shift to the corpuscles are noted in support of the contention of an acidotic tendency. The theory is advanced that there is a toxicosis in asthma which is more important than allergy in the etiology of asthma.
The Nature 812,
of the Ether
Reaction
of Urine.
Boyd,
W.
J.:
Biochem.
J.
25:
1931.
More than forty years ago the observation was made that urine when strongly acidified and shaken with ether separates into two layers with a precipitate of protein on the boundary. Recently Oriel and Barber discovered that the ether-alcohol precipitate obtained from urine passed during an asthmatic attack contains some of the antigen responsible for the attack. This fact was demonstrated by skin tests and by reproduction of the attack by intradermal injection into the patient of a solution of the precipitate derived from him. The present paper is a study of the nature of this ether-alcohol precipitate. The material was obt,ained by titrating 500 C.C. of urine with 5 C.C. of 25 per cent sulphuric acid, adding 100 c.c. of ether, shaking vigorously in a stoppered separating funnel for one minute and allowing the ether to separate for fifteen minutes. The aqueous layer was discarded and 100 C.C. of 93 per cent alcohol were added to the ether. The precipitate was allowed to settle and was separated by centrifuging, washed with alcohol and with ether and dried in a dessicator. The quantity of precipitate thus obtained appeared to be greater among asthmatics than among normal subjects. The substances responsible for the ether reaction and isolated thereby in urines of normal and asthmatic patients were shown to be an irreversibly coagulable protein and a mucoid.
THE
JOURNAL
OF
ALLERGY
Cord blood was obtained at birth, and attempts were made to sensitize passively the same normal individuals with this serum. In no instance was this attempt successful. Blood was then obtained from the baby, in some instances before the baby had been put to the breast, and in some instances after five days, to allow the influence of eolostrum feeding. Attempts were made to sensitize passively the same normal individuals with this serum. All results were negative. Tables and protocols are given.
Report II.
on Asthma J. 116:
Research
at Stobhill
Hospital,
Glasgow.
Adam,
J.:
Glasgow
82, 1931.
The report covers the results of eighteen months’ investigation of asthma at Stobhill Hospital. The fact is stated of the presence of eosinophilia in most cases of asthma, and there is a discussion at some length on the means by which the eosinophile count may be raised or lowered. It was suggested by the writer, in a previous communication, that there is an acidotic tendency in asthma. By that is not meant an actual acidosis with a lowering of the P, beyond 7.4, but an abnormal struggle on the part of the organism to maintain the normal balance. Further experience has confirmed that impression. The writer states in a discussion of the alkali reserve in asthma, that never in any adult has he found any evidence for alkalosis. The alkali recerve as estimated by Van Slyke’s method has either been about the lower normal limit or definitely below it. Apparently contradictory findings in children he attributes to the speedier biochemical change which takes place in children. The increase of ammonia-combined acid in the urine at the end of an asthmatic attack and the chloride shift to the corpuscles are noted in support of the contention of an acidotic tendency. The theory is advanced that there is a toxicosis in asthma which is more important than allergy in the etiology of asthma.
The Nature 812,
of the Ether
Reaction
of Urine.
Boyd,
W.
J.:
Biochem.
J.
25:
1931.
More than forty years ago the observation was made that urine when strongly acidified and shaken with ether separates into two layers with a precipitate of protein on the boundary. Recently Oriel and Barber discovered that the ether-alcohol precipitate obtained from urine passed during an asthmatic attack contains some of the antigen responsible for the attack. This fact was demonstrated by skin tests and by reproduction of the attack by intradermal injection into the patient of a solution of the precipitate derived from him. The present paper is a study of the nature of this ether-alcohol precipitate. The material was obt,ained by titrating 500 C.C. of urine with 5 C.C. of 25 per cent sulphuric acid, adding 100 c.c. of ether, shaking vigorously in a stoppered separating funnel for one minute and allowing the ether to separate for fifteen minutes. The aqueous layer was discarded and 100 C.C. of 93 per cent alcohol were added to the ether. The precipitate was allowed to settle and was separated by centrifuging, washed with alcohol and with ether and dried in a dessicator. The quantity of precipitate thus obtained appeared to be greater among asthmatics than among normal subjects. The substances responsible for the ether reaction and isolated thereby in urines of normal and asthmatic patients were shown to be an irreversibly coagulable protein and a mucoid.