IX. EFFECTS OF DEFICIENCY 375 



Heyden^*) and a number of hypotheses were proposed to account for the 

 urinary excretion of the inositol. Considering the type and limited amount 

 of data available at the time, these hypotheses are easily understandable. 

 For example, in one study, inositol was found in the urine of patients with 

 diabetes insipidus who likewise had lesions of the fourth ventricle of the 

 brain, whereas inositol was absent from the urine of two other patients 

 with diabetes insipidus in whom no lesion of the fourth ventricle was 

 present." The fact that inosituria is not limited to cases of diabetes insipidus 

 was indicated not only by the original observation of Cloetta,^^ which seems 

 to have been neglected by the workers of that time, but also by the dis- 

 covery that the urine of adults and children with a wide variety of diseases 

 may contain inositol. An account of these early observations was pub- 

 lished by Kiilz.^" Reichardt^^ and Kiilz^^ made the important observation 

 that, following the ingestion of large amounts of water, inosituria could 

 occur simultaneously with the polyuria. Kiilz found inosituria in normal 

 students who had consumed large volumes of wine or beer, and, although 

 these beverages contain inositol (Perrin^^ and Meillere^^) the diuresis, and 

 not the inositol intake, was considered to be the cause of the inositol ex- 

 cretion. Evidence for this opinion was produced when Kiilz administered 

 from 6 to 103^ 1. of water to six normal adults, who previously had excreted 

 no inositol. From the large quantities of urine obtained in each case, Kiilz 

 was able to isolate from 0.4 to 0.9 g. of inositol. Later he*^ showed that uri- 

 nary excretion of inositol could be elicited by the parenteral administration 

 of saline in rabbits. Meillere and Fleury^^ attempted to extend the earlier 

 work of Gallois^'^ and Meillfere and Camus** and to establish a correlation 

 between glycosuria and inosituria. Gallois had found inositol in the urine 

 of one out of every six patients with glycosuria, and Meillere and Camus 

 had previously produced both glycosuria and inosituria by means of punc- 

 ture of the floor of the fourth ventricle. Meillere and Fleury confirmed the 



^' V. d. Heyden, Dissertation, University of Leiden, 1875. 



" Schultzer, Klin. Wochschr. 35 (1875). 



8° E. Kulz, in C. Gerhardt, Handbuch der Kinderkrankheiten, Vol. 3, p. 285, Tubin- 

 gen, 1878. 



81 E. Reichardt, in C. Gerhardt, Lehrbuch der Kinderkrankheiten, p. 540, Tubingen, 

 1874. 



*2 E. Kiilz, Sitzber. Ges. Beforder. ges. Naturwiss. Marburg 7 (1875); Centr. med. Wiss. 

 550 (1876); Z. anal. Cheni. 16, 135 (1877); Beitrage Pathol, u. Therap. d. Diabetes 

 melilus u. insipidus 1, 2, Marburg (1877). 



8' G. Perrin, Ann. chim. anal. 14, 182 (1909). 



8^ G. Meillere, /. pharm. chim. [6] 30, 247 (1909); Cheni. Zentr. 2, 1776 (1909). 



86 E. Kulz, J. pharm. chim. 29, 187 (1879). 



8« G. Meillere and P. Fleury, Compt. rend. soc. biol. 2, 343 (1909). 



8' Gallois, Z. anal. Chem. 4, 264 (1865). 



88 G. Meillere and L. Camus, Compt. rend. soc. biol. 2, 159 (1906). 



