IN a preliminary paper [Lemberg, Legge & Lockwood, 1938] we have already reported the isQlation of biliverdin (dehydrobilirubin) and of biliviolin from. 1 This wotk was carried out under a grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. s According to Siedel (Angew. Chemie, 52, 38 [1939]) our compounds would be 'bilipurpurins', not 'biliviolins'. Siedel restricts the name 'biliviolins' to a very similar class of substances, probably isomeric with bilirubins, one of which e.g. is formed by the oxidation of mesobilinogen by ferric chloride; for the pigments of an oxidation stage higher than the biliverdins he uses the term 'bilipurpurins'. The extraordinary similarity of the properties of 'biliviolins' and 'bilipurpurins', and the fact that the latter comprise again several pigment classes, makes it appear more practical to maintain the generic name biliviolins, for all these pigments, and to distinguish them by figures and letters, Until more is known about their chemical constitution. The term also tallies better with the actual colour of the pigments. Biochem. 1941, 35 (363)24

Hydrochloric acid extraction of feces in the presence of ether yields an extract suitable for spectrophotometric estimation of total porphyrin and for further separation by "high-performance" liquid chromatography (HPLC) or thin-layer chromatography. A total porphyrin reference interval of less than 200 nmol/g dry weight of feces was established from data on 106 normal subjects on an unrestricted diet. Total fecal porphyrin values in 11 porphyria cutanea tarda patients were considerably higher than given by the widely used Rimington method (respective means, 652 and 239 nmol/g dry weight). Our HPLC method for separation of porphyrin methyl esters on a silica column, with quantification by fluorescence, is described. HPLC separations performed on 23 porphyria cutanea tarda patients gave the following mean proportions of total fecal porphyrins: dicarboxylics 21%, coproporphyrin 9%, isocoproporphyrins 28%, pentacarboxylporphyrin 9%, hexacarboxylporphyrin 11%, heptacarboxylporphyrin 18%, and uroporphyrin 4%.

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IN a preliminary publication [Lemberg, Legge & Lockwood, 1938] we have reported that by the coupled oxidation of haemoglobin and ascorbic acid the