Simultaneous Study of Constituents of Urine and Perspiration

Although much attention has been directed to the study of t,he chemical components of human urine and blood with the aim of establishing relationships bet,ween the presence of certain bodies and variations in the percentages of the normal constituents with pathological disorders, few similar investigations have been con-ducted with perspiration. This is indeed surprising when it is considered that many dermatologists ascribe certain skin diseases to unknown chemical substances or to an abnormal balance of the usual constituents in the sweat. Before any useful investigations on the influence of perspira,-tion on the etiology of skin disorders can be scientifically insti-gated, more exact information as to the normal components of sweat is required and this is particularly true of the nitrogen fraction. The data on this subject are meager and much of the information is inexact and has been secured by methods hardly calculated to furnish reliable results. As far as we are aware no complete analysis of the normal per-spiration has been recorded. Individual components have been detected and in some cases t.heir maximum and minimum limits established under certain specified conditions, but save for a few exceptions in which total solids, chlorides, non-protein nitrogen, and urea were simultaneously determined on the same sweat.sample, almost all studies have been confined to one or two com-ponents. This is particularly true of the nitrogen fraction. We were particularly interested in the non-protein nitrogenous fraction, the reaction of normal perspiration, and in those bodies producing the characteristic perspiratory odors. A correlation between the sweat and urine constituents during the period of test was also desired. 781 Downloaded from www.jbc.org