The influence of alcohol on the composition of urine

About twenty years ago Schumoff and Simanowski showed that oxidation in the body is markedly diminished after the administration of alcohol. They estimated oxidation in the body by the amount of phenol found in the urine after giving benzol. By this method they obtained results which showed that the oxidative processes in the body decreased 60-75 per cent, as a result of administering alcohol. Their findings seemed to be confirmed later by Presnyakoff who studied this problem in a different manner. He determined the amount of neutral sulphur before, during and after the administration of alcohol and concluded that the amount of unoxidized sulphur decreases during the alcohol period. As his data, hardly justify such a conclusion, we decided to reinvestigate the subject, with special reference to the amount of unoxidized sulphur as affected by alcohol. In the course of the research, however, it seemed to us desirable to study exactly also the effects of alcohol on the other urinary constituents. We carried out our experiments on a healthy dog kept in one of the improved metabolism cages devised and described by Professor Gies.

The diet consisted of meat, cracker meal, lard, and bone ash, given with definite amounts of water. Each experiment was begun after the dog reached a constant weight. During the control period 50 C.C. of water were given daily by mouth through a stomach tube for 6 days, During the next 6 days 50 c.c. of alcohol were administered in the same way. This was followed by another alcohol period of 7 days, when the same daily volume of 70 percent. alcohol was given. The alcohol was then discontinued and water was given again for 10 days in the same way as in the control period. Samples of forty-eight hour urine were taken for analysis.