Phenol was first found in normal urine by von Städeler1 in 1851. Since his day the phenols isolated from urine are phenol, paracresol, orthrocresol, pyrocatechin, hydroquinone, and para-oxybenzoic acid. The most important of these, according to Baumann,2 Mooser,3 and Siegfried and Zimmermann,4 is paracresol.
Städeler tested the urine distillate qualitatively with Millon's reagent. Baumann used a gravimetric method in which he converted the phenol into crystals of tribromphenol. The first volumetric method was originated by Messinger and Vortman. This was modified by Kossler and Penny,5 and later by Neuberg,6 Mooser,3 Siegfried and Zimmerman,7 and finally by Ellinger and Henzel.8 Among the colorimetric methods worthy of notice are those of Bananni,9 Bordas and Bobin,9 and Kiesel.9 It remained, however, for Folin and Denis to devise a method which was both accurate and clinically applicable.
In 1879 H. Senator,10