ORIGINAL ARTICLES

            SULPHUR AND SULPHATE BALANCE EXPERIMENTS
                                                 WITH CATTLE

                                                            BY

                                                F. J. WARTH, M.Sc.,

Physiological Chemist, Animal Nutrition Section, Imperial Department of Agriculture,
                                                         Bangalore.

                                (Received for publication on 11th April 1932.)

While cystine must remain the main factor in sulphur metabolism, we may ask
the question : Is the body capable of assimilating any other form of sulphur com-
pound than cystine ?

The widespread occurrence of sulphatase in the animal body [Neuberg and
Simon, 1925 ; Rosenfeld, 1925] signifies some mechanism for the utilization of
sulphate ; hence it is reasonable to enquire whether inorganic sulphate can be
assimilated. The question has been studied recently by Dennis and Leeke [1925].
These authors, having devised an effective method for determining the total sulphate
in tissues, made intravenous injections of hypertonic Na₂SO₄ in dogs. On examining
the tissues of these animals, they found no appreciable accumulation of sulphate in
any organ and concluded that there is no evidence to show assimilation. Concern-
ing the intestinal absorption of sulphate, the work of Hertz, Cook and Schlessinger
[1908] on the cathartic effect of large doses of sulphate must be noted. These
workers showed clearly that the ingested sulphate is taken up very efficiently into
the blood stream, the liquid stools containing no more than the normal amount of
sulphate and the cathartic effect being due to sulphate peripheral to the intestine.
They found, however, that the faecal sulphate increased at a later stage, showing
that part of the excess in the blood is re-excreted through this channel.

The present author's experiments described in the sequel lead to the following
conclusions :—

1.  With certain types of ration there is invariably some loss of inorganic
sulphate. The amount excreted in the urine is always less than the amount
ingested. The quantity in the sweat is negligible and the quantity in the faeces is
small and does not account for the sulphate lost.

2.  The possibility has to be considered that the sulphate was in the faeces and
has been altered by bacterial activity. In this case it might be convrtede eithrə
into sulphide or into organic sulphur.

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