Red indican urine : its clinical significance, the Metchnikoff theory / by Anthony Bassler.

  • Bassler, Anthony, 1874-
Date:
1910
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Red indican urine : its clinical significance, the Metchnikoff theory / by Anthony Bassler. 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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    solution is decolorized. Upon the addition of one or two drops of hydrochloric acid to the alcoholic extract the rose-red color of urorosein reappears, quickly fading out on standing. It is interesting to observe that while both indicans are found in cases of albuminoid putrefaction in the intestines, urorosein is more commonly found where there is fermentation of vegetable substances, as in cases of saccharo-butyric chronic intestinal putrefaction. These cases of putrefaction may have neither blue nor red indican in the urine (only urorosein), and they comprise by far the greatest number of cases of chronic intestinal putrefaction of all forms that exist. The blue indican cases usually present themselves clinically showing depression, relaxation, lowered vitality and persistent anaemia. The red indican cases, on the other hand, are more usually of the irritative, anxious, highly neurotic and hysterical types, with good general body and blood condi- tions, and are not so commonly constipated. In this way they are more like the urorosein cases although more pronounced. My experience has been that the bacterial and cultural examinations of the faeces in the blue and red indican cases show no distinctive differences. Some yield high Gram-positive findings, others low. In the urorosein cases, however, the Gram-positive diplococci and bacillus aerogenes capsulatus are almost always high. It must not be forgotten that just as these chromogens differ in findings, amounts and combinations, different bacterial results in the fecal examinations are also met with. After such conditions have existed for a while, improperly or negatively treated, or not under observation, the different bacterial species usually proliferate hand in hand; often one type of a distinctive kind will present phases of difference as time goes on, and it may even develop into another type while the case is under observation. It is almost a daily observation with me that when the proper diet for an indican case has been maintained for a while (essentially proteid free), and the output of indican has been lowered, the individual will develop into a urorosein case for which the diet would be essentially proteid in make-up. Among other things that must be done in the handling of these cases is to put all types on a diet of proper caloric value to meet the weight and work of the individual, and to grade the proteins, protein sparers and vegetables to meet the urinary indications. Only in this way can substantial tissue-construction in treatment take place. The carrying out of such a treatment is difficult and requires close watching and much labor in the laboratory. For these cases th'ere is no short cut of therapy like the Metchnikoff Bulgarian bacillus milk treatment. The hundreds of patients with these conditions whom I have observed and whose urines and faeces I have exhaustively examined from time to time have definitely proven this to be so, even in the face of the good reports that are being advanced from the use of this milk. The worst cases of indolic putrefaction of the gut I have seen were using this milk for weeks without improvement. Let us not forget that an individual on a diet of good milk harbors less bacteria in the colon than when on any other kind of diet, simply because the constituents of milk are of such kinds and in such forms that they are all quickly digested and absorbed, and leaving but little residue to accumulate in the colon. We long