288 



Mary Davies Swarlz, 



discussion of the behavior of galactose in the animal body by Brasch 

 (175) renders any details on the utilization of this sugar unnecessary. 

 Hofmeister (188) showed that of all sugars it is most readily excreted. 

 That galactose can form glycogen in dogs and rabbits, has been shown 

 by Weinland (226), Kausch and Socin (189), Cremer (177), Voit (223), 

 Brasch (175), and others.^ Brasch (175) has shown that the assimila- 

 tion limits for galactose lie, for normal man, between 30 and 40 grams, 

 while for dextrose they lie between 100 and 150 grams. Voit (224), 

 Sandmeyer (206), Bauer (170), and others have shown that galactose, 

 even in small amounts increases the sugar excretion in diabetes. It 

 would seem, therefore, that if soluble agar were absorbed as sugar, it 

 would increase the sugar output in the urine. To throw some light 

 on this problem Lohrisch (194) has conducted three respiration ex- 

 periments on men after ingestion of 100-110 grams of soluble agar, of 

 which, on the average, about 63 per cent was absorbed. The changes 

 in the respiratory quotient are shown in the following table: 



Respiratory Quotient. 



The distinct rise in the respiratory quotient in the fourth hour 

 (beginning in the third hour in Experiment I) would indicate that car- 

 bohydrate was being oxidized, which in this case must come from the 

 agar. The low value in the later hours seems due to the oxidation of 

 fatty acids ;2 that such acids may be formed from soluble agar by 

 bacteria, appears probable also from the intestinal fermentation pro- 



ber. Magnus-Levy, Verwerthbarkeit der Galactose in normalen Organismus : Op- 

 penheimer's Handbuch der Biochemie der Menschen und der Tiere, Vol. IV, p. 379. 

 ^Cf. respiration experiments described under Cellulose. 



