402 Influence of Inanition on Metabolism. 



The ratio is highest for the first day of experiment No. 80, 20.03, and 

 lowest for the first day of experiment No. 71, 11.25. The average ratios for all 

 of the experiments remain relatively constant throughout the fasts. It is 

 evident, however, that marked variation may occur in the experiments, even 

 in those with the same subject. For example, in experiment No. 71 the ratios 

 ranged from 11.25 on the first day to 17.27 on the third. It will be remembered 

 that on the first day of this experiment an unusually small amount of nitrogen 

 was excreted and hence the numerator of the fraction is small. Evidently, 

 then, the low excretion of nitrogen was not accompanied by a correspondingly 

 low excretion of sulphur. The average ratio for all of the experiments is 16.78. 

 Further discussion of the significance of this ratio is deferred pending the 

 consideration of the quantities of protein, fats, and carbohydrate katabolized 

 during fasting. 



Ethereal sulphates. The work of Baumann, 82 on ethereal sulphates in the 

 urine has led to the almost general acceptance of his views on the use of the 

 amount of ethereal sulphates as an index of bacterial decomposition in the 

 intestine. This view has been recently opposed by Folin, 83 who implies that the 

 ethereal sulphates have a much more complicated origin than bacterial action. 



The ethereal sulphur was not determined in the fasting experiments here 

 reported, but in some of the earlier fasts, especially those with Cetti and 

 Breithaupt, the amounts of ethereal sulphates were found. 



An inspection of the data presented by Munk & Mueller (7) shows that the 

 amount of ethereal sulphates is considerable on all the days of the fast. In one 

 instance, namely, on the ninth day of Cetti's fast, the amount of the ethereal 

 sulphate was nearly one-third of the total sulphuric acid. These writers point 

 out that the amounts they found with Cetti and Breithaupt are ten times 

 greater than those found by Luciani (4) in Succi's Florence fast. 



The results of Munk & Mueller (7), viewed from the standpoint of Baumann, 

 indicate a bacterial decomposition continuing throughout the fast and, indeed, 

 in very considerable measure. On the other hand, in the observations of E. & 

 0. Freund (10) on Succi during the Vienna fast, the amounts of ethereal 

 sulphates (expressed as S0 3 ), range from 0.20 gram on the first fasting day to 

 0.058 gram on the twentieth fasting day, there being a gradual decrease as the 

 fast progressed. These quantities are similar to those found by Luciani in the 

 Florence fast, and, viewed from the standpoint of Baumann, indicate a very 

 much lower degree of bacterial fermentation than do the results of Munk & 

 Mueller on the Berlin fasters. 



Inorganic and ethereal sulphates. Although the data for computing the 

 ethereal sulphates are lacking in the experiments here reported, the sum of 

 the inorganic and ethereal sulphates has been recorded for all experiments in 



82 Zeit. f. physiol. Chemie (1879), 3, p. 156. 

 83 Amer. Journ. Physiol. (1905), 13, p. 97. 



