VIII. EFFECTS OF DEFICIENCY IN ANIMALS 315 



These results were confirmed by Rienits.-^"" Salmon and May-" obtained 

 somewhat dilTerent results with folic acid in monkeys. They found no differ- 

 ence between normal and scorbutic animals in the urinary excretion of 

 p-hydroxj'phenyl compounds and keto acids. After administration of 2 g. 

 of tyrosine by ga\'age daily for a prolonged period, a scorbutic animal ex- 

 creted very large amounts of the compounds, but a normal animal put out 

 only \'ery small amounts. Administration of ascorbic acid to the scorbutic 

 animal reduced the excretion of the compounds to the level of the normal 

 animal, but folic acid had no effect. 



Vitamin C may play some role in detoxification of certain amino acids. 

 This has been implied by the work of De Caro and Bertrami,-^'' who found 

 that 10 mg. of ascorbic acid daily were required to counteract the effect of 

 0.1 g. of cystine added daily to the scorbutigenic diet. In the absence of 

 adequate amounts of ascorbic acid the addition of cystine shortened the 

 survival time of guinea pigs. Rygh^^* has reported also that administration 

 of L-cystine hastens the development of scurvy. Although no work has been 

 done on the relation of ascorbic acid to methionine detoxification-^^-^* in 

 rats, this w^ould appear to be a problem which should be investigated. 



Christensen and Lynch- found a marked decrease of glycine and gluta- 

 mine in the skeletal muscles and of glutamine in the liver of ascorbic acid- 

 deficient guinea pigs as compared to normal animals or to fasted controls. 

 Amino acids other than glycine or glutamine were increased in the deficient 

 animals. 



Murray'^®" observed that normal animals had a much greater ability to 

 convert DL-alanine to liver glycogen than did the scorbutic animals. 



b. Carbohydrates 



(1) Absorption. A study by Murray and Morgan-^' demonstrated a lower 

 absorption after glucose ingestion in scorbutic than in normal guinea pigs. 

 This work was based on analyses of the intestinal contents at various inter- 

 vals after giving glucose. These findings were confirmed by Banerjee and 

 Gho.sh.=«' 



(2) Metabolism. There has been no clear indication of a disturbance in 



2" R. J. Salmon and C. D. May, J. Lab. Clin. Med. 36, 591 (1950). 



"^ L. De Caro and W. Bertrami, Quaderni nutriz. 2, 165 (1935). 



2" O. Ilygh, Bull. soc. chim. biol. 33, 133 (1951). 



"8 D. P. Earle, K. Smull, and J. Victor, J. Exptl. Med. 76, 317 (1942). 



2" K. A. J. Wretlind, Acta Physiol. Scand. 20, 1 (1950). 



"8 J. F. Van Pilsum and C. P. Berg, J. Biol. Chem. 183, 279 (1950). 



28" H. C. Murray, Proc. Soc. Exptl. Biol. Med. 69, 351 (1948). 



291 H. C. Murray and A. F. Morgan, J. Biol. Chem. 163, 401 (1946). 



2" S. Banerjee and N. C. Ghosh, /. Biol. Chem. 180, 189 (1949). 



