The nature of leucocytosis produced by nucleinic acid : a preliminary experimental study / by Delano Ames and A. A. Huntley.

  • Ames, Delano, 1906-1987.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nature of leucocytosis produced by nucleinic acid : a preliminary experimental study / by Delano Ames and A. A. Huntley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    with a dilute mineral acid, four distinct substances— bases, while that from the thymus gland of calves yields only one base—adenin. These facts are men- tioned because, as is well-known, there is some close relation existing between this group of substances, the decomposition products of the nucleins, known as xanthin bases, and the formation and excretion of uric acid, a question that we will not attempt to dis- cuss at the present time. Since all nucleins contain phosphorus, and since it seems that the greater the amount of phosphorus the more active is the nuclein, the amount of phosphorus which any given sample of this substance contains may be taken as an index of the amount of nucleinic acid present in the preparation. The various commercial articles now on the market have been found to vary considerably in the amount of nucleinic acid that they contain. According to a recent report of Professor Chittenden,19 that manu- factured by the firm of Parke, Davis & Co., under the name of Nuclein Solution from Yeast contains the most phosphorus, and therefore is the richest in nu- cleinic acid. It is the preparation used by us in the experiments that form the basis of this communi- cation. Having seen what nuclein is, let us inquire into the nature of its physiologic actions. The use of this sub- stance as a therapeutic agent is of such recent date, and is based on such a narrow margin of known facts regarding its action, that there is comparatively little known as to its full action on the diseased economy.80 Lowitt20some time ago made the statement that,by sub- cutaneous injection of nuclein in animals in the ratio of 1 per cent, per kilo, of weight, he quickly produced very dangerous symptoms, such as threatened cardiac and respiratory failure. It is impossible to say what preparation he used, or how it was prepared, but most certainly our observations and those of others have been just the opposite, and we have never seen, either in animals or man, any harmful symptoms