862 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol.43 



Experimental studies on diabetes. — I, Production and control of diabetes 

 in the dog, F. M. Axlen {Jour. Expt. Med., 31 {1920), No. 5, pp. 555-608, pis. 

 2). — In continuation of the experimental studies on tlie control of diabetes in 

 the dog (E. S. R., 43, p. 370), three papers are presented. 



(3) Effects of protein diets (pp. 555-573). — In this paper the results are 

 reported of the effect of different proteins, of excess of proteins, and of 

 prolonged protein or protein-fat diets on the course of experimental diabetes 

 in the dog. 



No specitic differences were observed between the glycosuric effects of dif- 

 ferent kinds of protein, indicating that there are no differences of therapeutic 

 importance for diabetics in different proteins as has been alleged by some 

 authors in connection with the oatmeal cure. Excess of protein caused a very 

 rapid course of diabetes and cachexia. 



To study the progress or arrest of diabetes during a long period in which 

 the animals were kept on a uniform diet which seemed to be within their 

 tolerance, observations were made during an extended period on a series of 

 dogs fulfilling the general conditions of mild diabetes apparently kept under 

 control by a carefully selected diet. Of these animals two were carried 

 through a sufficiently long period to confirm the benefit of the classical treat- 

 ment of diabetes. With a demonstrated susceptibility of both of these animals 

 to injury from excess of carbohydrates or proteins this injury was checked 

 when carbohydrate was omitted, protein restricted, and a full caloric diet made 

 up by the use of fat. It was found safer for these animals to be obese on a 

 fat diet than to eat carbohydrate or a carbohydrate-forming food such as 

 protein. On the death of these animals, autopsy showed acidosis to be the 

 cause of the death in one case. While unproved in the other, the conclusion is 

 drawn that even the mildest diabetes will ultimately undergo aggravation 

 from luxus diets leading to a fatal termination. 



(4) Control of experimental diabetes by fasting and total dietary restriction 

 (pp. 575-586). — The treatment of diabetes in this paper represented the au- 

 thor's method of fasting and total dietary restriction In c -trast to the no- 

 oarbohydrate, low protein, and high fat dietary of the preceding study. 



Several observations, one extending over a period of nearly two years, are 

 reported, all of which indicate that the tolerance created by undernutrition was 

 genuine and permanent, and that the feeding of carbohydrate within the limits 

 of this tolerance did not damage the assimilation or the islands of Langerhans. 



(5) Various failures of dietetic treatment, and their causes (pp. 587-608). — 

 The cases reported in this paper have been selected to illustrate the causes of 

 various failures in the dietetic treatment of diabetes. These include a case of 

 such severity that the glycosuria was controllable only by fatal undernutrition, 

 a case of originally mild diabetes in which prolonged slight overfeeding (as 

 would be illustrated by slight dietary indiscretion) led to a fatal termination, 

 cases in which the glycosuria became uncontrollable after protein overfeeding 

 or prolonged protein-fat overfeeding, and cases in which the severity of the 

 diabetes was too great to be checked by fasting. 



In conclusion the author discusses the general application of the observations 

 of this series of studies to the treatment of human diabetes of varying degrees 

 of severity, emphasizing particularly the greater permanence of the control 

 of the disease by undernutrition with limitation of fat than by exclusion of 

 preformed carbohydrate and limitation of protein. 



Types and treatment of pellagra, S. R. Roherts {Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, 

 15 (1920), No. 1, pp. 21-26). — The author reviews briefly the history of pellagra, 

 pointing out the changes in type and present tendencies of the disease and sum- 



