376 INOSITOLS 



observation of Gallois and were further able to demonstrate the existence 

 of inosituria in phlorhizin diabetes and in experimentally produced diabetes 

 after removal of the pancreas. They concluded that inosituria is intimately 

 linked with glycosuria,^^ whatever the cause of the latter might be, and 

 that it accompanied polyuria only when this is associated with glycosuria. 

 The situation appeared to be resolved by the observations of Starkenstein^" 

 and Needham.*^ Starkenstein showed that inositol has no significant rela- 

 tion to diabetes mellitus except that, when the volume of urine is large, 

 inosituria may occur. The urine of diabetic patients, when of small volume, 

 contains no inositol. Needham induced polyuria and inosituria in rats by 

 feeding them a salt diet over a period of 110 days. Although the diet con- 

 tained no inositol and the inosituria was of considerable magnitude and 

 duration, no diminution in the inositol content of the tissues could be 

 demonstrated. These exjseriments are important, since they not only prove 

 that urinary excretion of inositol may be induced by measures that produce 

 polyuria but they demonstrate also that the animal body is able to syn- 

 thesize inositol. How profound an inosituria may accompany polyuria is 

 indicated by the early observation of VohF^ and the later isolation by Hop- 

 kins^^ of about 15 g. of inositol daily from the urine of a patient with diabetes 

 insipidus. Using a modification of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae G. M. method 

 of Williams et al.,^^ Johnson et al.^^ studied the excretion of inositol in the 

 sweat and urine of four adult male subjects under constant environmental 

 and dietary conditions. The average excretion of inositol in the sweat during 

 an 8-hour period of exposure to "hot moist" conditions was 0.118 mg. per 

 hour. Under the same conditions, the average urinary loss was 0.494 mg. 

 per hour. The corresponding average losses under "comfortable" conditions 

 were 0.027 mg. in sweat and 0.626 mg. in the urine. Thus, with a greater 

 loss of inositol in the sweat under the hot moist conditions, there appeared 

 to be a compensatory decrease in the excretion of inositol in the urine. 



83 G. Meillere and P. Fleury, Re-pert, phann. [3]21, 498 (1909) [from the Tribune med. 

 Sept. 4, 1909; C. A. 4, 934 (1910)]. 



90 E. Starkenstein, Z. exptl. Pathol. 5, 378 (1908). 



91 F. G. Hopkins, (1923), quoted by J. Needham, ref. 45. 



92 R. J. Williams, A. K. Stout, H. K. Mitchell, and J. R. McMahan, Univ. Texas 

 Publ.ilZT, 27 (1941). 



93 B. C. Johnson, H. H. Mitchell, and T. S. Hamilton, /. Biol. Chem. 161, 357 (1945). 



