Abstract

A column of acid aluminum oxide strongly adsorbs organo-mercurial compounds containing a carboxyl group while non-carboxylic organic mercury compounds and inorganic mercury are readily washed through the column by distilled water. The carboxylic acid mercurial compound is completely eluted from the column by a sodium carbonate solution. The adsorbent makes it possible to quantitatively separate meralluride, an organo-mercurial containing a carboxyl group, from inorganic mercury or from organo-mercurial agents that do not have a carboxyl group.

When urine obtained from a dog during meralluride diuresis is passed through an acid aluminum oxide column, two mercury fractions are obtained. One, which represents by far the larger amount, is strongly adsorbed by the column. The other fraction is washed through the column by distilled water.

Diuresis is more closely related to the compound adsorbed by the column than the fraction that is washed through by water. Actually, the concentration of the latter is frequently negligible, even during periods of considerable diuresis.

Little is known about the chemical nature of the compounds represented by these two fractions or whether each fraction is a single chemical entity.