386 Influence of Inanition on Metabolism. 



hence the ratios from the experiments with S. A. B. too low rather than too 

 high. 



The apparently abnormal ratios between carbon and nitrogen in these fasting 

 experiments have confirmation so far as the determination of the amount of 

 carbon is concerned in the ratio of the energy to the nitrogen. (See discussion 

 under energy section, p. 490.) From an inspection of the data given there, it 

 would appear that the ratio of carbon to nitrogen observed is wholly in accord 

 with what would be expected from the ratios of energy to nitrogen and hence 

 support the view that the high ratios here observed actually exist and are not 

 due to errors in analysis or computation. 



The possibility of an excretion of non-nitrogenous or low-nitrogenous 

 material in the urine, thereby increasing the ratio of carbon to nitrogen, will 

 be considered in discussing the elimination of creatine and creatinine. 



creatinine and creatine. 



Although the pressure of other work in this laboratory precluded analyses 

 of the urine to secure information as to the partition of the nitrogen, Prof. 

 Lafayette B. Mendel, of Yale University, kindly offered to make determinations 

 of creatinine in the urine of experiments ISTos. 73 and 74, suggesting that, in 

 view of the recent appearance of Folin's theory of protein metabolism, deter- 

 minations of the creatinine output of a fasting man would be of interest. A 

 Dubosc colorimeter was obtained later and in all experiments subsequent to No. 

 74, the determinations were made in this laboratory. 



Observations regarding the excretion of creatinine by fasting men have 

 hitherto been confined to those of Baldi M and E. and 0. Freund (10) on Succi, 

 and by Yan Hoogenhuyze and Verploegh (11) on a fasting girl. Baldi 

 determined the creatinine elimination of Succi during the Florence fast by 

 using the ISTeubauer method. On the seventh fasting day he found by this 

 method 0.8011 gram of creatinine; on the twelfth, 0.7159 gram, and on the 

 seventeenth, 0.4029 gram. After the seventeenth day, although creatinine 

 could be determined qualitatively, it was not present in weighable amounts. 



E. and O. Freund (10) likewise using the Neubauer method, determined the 

 creatinine in the 21-day fast of Succi made in Vienna in 1896. According to 

 their observations, the creatinine-nitrogen increased from 0.134 gram, on the 

 first day to 0.578 gram, on the ninth day. The authors explain that the increase 

 was probably caused by the exercise which Succi had with the sabre. On the 

 tenth and eleventh days the creatinine-nitrogen fell rapidly. The twelfth day 

 the output was but 0.08 gram. The decrease continued as the fast progressed, 

 there being but 0.025 gram of creatinine-nitrogen excreted on the twenty-first 

 day. 



K Centralblatt f. klin. Medic. (1889), 10, p. 651. 



