Abstract
I have shown, 1 by means of microchemical methods, that the lesion of a cerebral hemisphere of the guinea pig gives rise to an increase in the water, nitrogen, and sulphur content, and to a decrease in the phosphorus content of the disintegrating cerebral matter. In the present research I have studied the variations of the water and phosphorus in degenerating peripheral nerves of the rabbit.
The sciatic nerves of one side were sectioned high in the thigh of 9 rabbits; they were later analyzed variously, from the 7th to the 196th day after the operation, the normal contralateral sciatic nerve serving as a control. All the analyses, which were made in duplicate on the individual nerves, were concerned with the water, the total phosphorus, and the following phosphorus combinations: lipidic, alcohol-soluble, proteidic, and water-soluble. Simultaneous histological preparations were made in all cases.
The water was determined separately after desiccation at 90° C. to constant weight. The phosphorus combinations were first extracted by means of absolute alcohol and ether, later by boiling water, in a Kumagawa micro-apparatus. After the first extraction the alcohol and ether were gotten rid of, and there were successively separated from the residue: (1) the lipidic fraction, by means of a mixture of ether and benzene, (2) a first water-soluble fraction, (3) the alcohol-soluble fraction. The first water-soluble fraction was later added to the product of the aqueous extraction. The remaining proteidic fraction was analyzed separately.
The various fractions were dried and then decomposed by sulphuric and nitric acids; the phosphorus content was determined in each of them by the previously described 1 microchemical method.
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