Albert W . Bryan Mechanism of the Synthesis

These studies were undertaken in order to determine the clinical value of the sodium benzoate test of renal function as proposed by Kingsbury and Swanson (27). Hippuric acid has claimed the attention of physiologic chemists and pathologists for many years (40). The basis of this interest lies in the generally accepted fact of its formation in the body by the conjugation of benzoic acid, or its salts, with glycocoll, resulting in the detoxication of the former and the loss of the latter to the body. The question as to where this conjugation takes place and whence comes the large amount of requisite glycocoll still claims the attention of the chemist. The interest of the pathologist is due to the celebrated experiments of Bunge and Schmiedeberg (8), who, in 1877, perfused the kidneys of surviving dogs with benzoic acid and glycocoll, and later found hippuric acid in the transfused blood, from which they concluded that, at least in the dog, the kidney is the site of the synthesis. For many years their results stood unchallenged. If correct, this function of the kidney is singular since other substances synthesized by the body appear in the various organs, but are only excreted by the kidney. The possible aberration of this synthesizing