THE ANTIBERIBERI VITAMINE 215 



to a lack of vitamine B. Similar conditions are frequently met 

 with in the study of pellagra and hunger edema, to which we shall 

 refer again in the chapter dealing with the question. We have 

 already seen in the investigation of Funk and Dubin (I.e. 331) that 

 a larger addition of carbohydrates increased the vitamine B require- 

 ments. In this respect, rats are similar to pigeons except that in 

 rats, an excess of fat causes much greater disturbances than in 

 pigeons. 



Besides the above mentioned results, Funk and v. Schonborn (I.e. 

 304) found that whereas in normal pigeons, the glycogen and blood 

 sugar content of the liver is 1.17 per cent and 0.1 per cent, respec- 

 tively, on an artificial vitamine-free diet, the glycogen content drops 

 to 0.48 per cent and the blood sugar rises to 0.15 per cent. 9 Pigeons 

 fed on an excess of sugar showed 4.5 per cent glycogen and 0.15 per 

 cent blood sugar. On an excess of starch, there is no glycogen and 

 0.26 per cent blood sugar. In the last case, if vitamine B is added, 

 the values for glycogen and blood sugar approach normal. These 

 results were later repeated several times and corroborated by the 

 author (568). 10 



Besides this, we also studied the influence of substances having a 

 known action on carbohydrate metabolism. Among them, the 

 effect of glucose, phlorizin, adrenaline, pituitrin, thyroid and para- 

 thyroids on pigeon beriberi was tested, normal and rice-fed pigeons 

 being used. Of special interest, was adrenaline, which shortened the 

 life of the animal; this was also true of thyroid. The influence of 

 parathyroids was quite different. While thyroid raised the blood 

 sugar content and the amino nitrogen in the serum, and lowered the 

 glycogen content of the liver, the addition of parathyroids increased 

 the glycogen and amino acid content, but had little effect on blood 

 sugar. We must admit, however, that Elias and Kolb (569) also 

 demonstrated glucosuria in starving dogs, which was attributed 

 to acidosis, and which could be remedied by the administration of 

 alkali. We have already emphasized that it is not known, at present 

 how many of the starvation symptoms may be regarded as results of 



9 Scott (567a) has found the normal blood sugar content in pigeons higher, 

 but the difference may be due to a different method of bleeding the animal, 

 a fact which has been frequently observed by us. 



10 The finding of glucosuria in pigeon beriberi has not yet been confirmed 

 in human beriberi. 



