PARS GLANDULARIS AND METABOLISM 



tomized monkeys (59 + 3.1^ mg. per cent).' The reasons 

 for the precipitate diminution of the sugar of the blood of 

 hypophysectomized animals as a result of fasting will be dis- 

 cussed later. 



The rate at which glucose is absorbed from the digestive 

 tract by hypophysectomized animals is abnormally slow, as 

 was first demonstrated by Phillips and Robb in rats. Ben- 

 nett (1936), Fisher and Pencharz (1936), Russell (1937), and 

 Russell and Bennett (1937) all used rats and agree with the 

 conclusion of Phillips and Robb. According to Bennett, the 

 amount of glucose absorbed in an arbitrary period is about 

 2^ per cent less in hypophysectomized than in normal rats. 

 Russell and Cori (1937) reported that the tolerance for intra- 

 venously injected glucose is reduced in hypophysectomized 

 rats to the same extent that oxygen-consumption suffers a 

 reduction.'" The renal threshold of glucose was found to be 

 abnormally high in operated rats. Russell and Bennett 

 found that as early as 24 hours after hypophysectomy," 

 fasting is followed by an abnormally rapid decrease in the 

 concentration of glucose in the blood and of glycogen in the 

 liver and striated muscle. If such animals are then fed, the 

 return of these carbohydrates to normal levels is abnormally 

 slow, principally because the reserves are abnormally low 

 and because the absorption of glucose is abnormally slow. 



'Scott (1937) investigated the concentration of lactic acid in the blood of 

 normal and hypophysectomized monkeys and obtained high values, which she 

 attributed to muscular activity which was beyond her control. Blood obtained from 

 the heart of normal monkeys contained 104 ± 6.5 mg. per cent of lactic acid, whereas 

 similar blood of hypophysectomized monkeys contained 37 + 4.5 mg. per cent. 



See the article of Marenzi (1936) for an account of the changes in, and the 

 effects of pituitary (extracts) on, the following constituents of striated muscle of the 

 toad after hypophysectomy: glycogen, inorganic P, phosphocreatine, glutathione, 

 and lactic acid. 



'" There are few new data on changes in glucose-tolerance as a result of hy- 

 pophysectomy. For example, Slome (1936) found that glucose- tolerance is increased 

 after hypophysectomv in the toad, Xenopus laevis. There are other references in the 

 text. 



" Inanition or brain injury or the absence of the pars neuralis was not responsible 

 for the change. 



[207] 



