Abstract
It was my first intention to know the relation between Arakawa's reaction and the uric acid excretion. Animal experimentation reported in literature showed unanimously that animals fed-on B-avitaminotic food had an increased excretion of uric acid. Apparently healthy lactating mothers with milk negative to Arakawa's reaction are generally in a state of B-avitaminosis. If it is so, it will follow that Arakawa-negative mothers will excrete more uric acid per day than Arakawa-positive ones. This is the problem I wanted to solve.
As it is, however, very difficult to collect whole day urine of these healthy mothers, I wanted to solve the problem indirectly. Lactating mothers whose sick infants had been admitted to our Department were made objects of investigation, because it was less difficult to collect their whole day urine and they might, as I thought, change their Arakawa's reaction during their more or less long stay at our Hospital.
So I studied the relation of the change of Arakawa's reaction and the amount of uric acid excreted in 10 lactating mothers. When their Arakawa's reaction changed from worse to better, they were considered to have changed from worse to better with regard to their B-avitaminotic state. (This consideration was the natural result of a number of investigations from our Laboratory).
The result was: 1. When Arakawa's reaction was positive, the amount of uric acid excreted was the smallest, and 2. in the case of completely or almost completely negative Arakawa's reaction, its amount was the largest. 3. And in the case of intermediate reactions, its amount was of intermediate values.
It was thus highly probable that apparently healthy Arakawa-negative mothers, who are in a state of B-avitaminosis, would excrete a larger amount of uric acid per day than Arakawa-positive mothers.
Besides, the following result was seen. Umemura2) of our Laboratory showed that Arakawa-positive mothers generally excreted a larger amount of urine per day than Arakawa-negative ones, and that specific gravity of urine was generally smaller in the former than in the latter.
In my own investigation, when Arakawa's reaction improved, lactating mothers excreted generally a larger amount of urine per day and the specific gravity of their urine became smaller generally.
What has been stated in the Summary will further be confirmed by the result of my own, which will be reported under the title: Influence of Vitamin B Administration upon Urinary Uric Acid Content and Arakawa's Reaction of Lactating Mothers.
