FURTHER STUDIES ON THE FATE OF SELENIUM IN THE ORGANISM

¹ From the National Institute of Health, Washington, D. C.

1. A method for the fractionation of urinary selenium which distinguishes sodium selenate and selenite from organic selenium has been presented.

2. Most of the urinary selenium excreted by rabbits fed on seleniferous wheat appears with the ethereal and neutral sulfur presumably as organic selenium, with only about 15 per cent as inorganic.

3. Various agents reputed to influence the sulfur partition of the urine produced no marked change in the urinary selenium output.

4. No significant increase in the output of urinary selenium or any decrease in the tissue selenium could be obtained by the oral administration of brombenzene.

5. No pronounced amounts of selenium could be found with p-brom-phenyl mercapturic acid isolated from the urine of brombenzene-treated selenized rabbits.