Extraction of Chloride from Mammalian Skin

IN the course of an investigation into the distribution of chloride between blood plasma and skin in the cat, difficulty was encountered in determining the chloride content of the skin. Digestion of the tissue in concentrated nitric acid is impracticable owing to loss of chloride; the tissue proved to be too tough to be ground in trichloracetic acid, which is the standard procedure with other tissues. Freezing before grinding had no helpful effect and cutting the tissue into very small fragments before grinding was, though successful, both laborious and time-consuming; mincing was impracticable owing to the relatively small samples which could be used.