DECOMPOSITION OF TISSUE PROTEIN 127 



protein, as in starvation, 15 in fever, 16 in diabetes, 17 in poison- 

 ing by phloridzin 18 and phosphorus, 19 after being in an 

 atmosphere poor in oxygen, 20 and after strenuous muscular 

 exertion. 21 It is extremely suggestive that this is especially 

 true in the last mentioned condition if the muscular effort 

 is performed after insufficient nutrition, at the expense of 

 the part involved in the exertion. It appears that work 

 does not necessarily induce increase of creatin-ereatinin 

 elimination in well fed human beings and animals ; but in 

 conditions of hunger this is quite apt to be the result. In 

 phloridzin diabetes the elimination of creatinin is particu- 

 larly increased when there is an insufficiency of carbohydrate 

 in the food. It is a fact, too, that in protein starvation the 

 creatin-ereatinin elimination can be prevented by exhibition 

 of carbohydrate (or especially of fat). 22 This recalls the 

 well-known antagonism of carbohydrates to the elimination 

 of acetone bodies ; in both instances there may be recog- 

 nized the ability of carbohydrates to satisfy the immediate 

 needs of the body, as it were by payment of available small 

 change, and thus to avert the necessity of liquidation of its 

 fixed assets. That no direct relation, but merely a parallel- 

 ism, exists between the elimination of acetone bodies 



18 E. P. Cathcart (Glasgow), Jour, of Physiol., 89, 311, 1909; L. B. 

 Mendel and W. C. Rose (Yale Univ.), Jour, of Biol. Chem., 10, 255, 1911. 



"H. Rietschel, Jahrb. f. Kinderheilk., 61, 621, 1905; O. af Klercker 

 (Lund), Zeitschr. f. klin. Med., 68, 22, 1909; A. Skutetzky (v. Jaksch's Clinic, 

 Prague), Deutsch. Arch. f. klin. Med., 103, 423, 1911. 



17 R. A. Krause (Edinburgh), Quarterly Jour, of Physiol., 3, 289, 1910; 

 R. A. Krause and W. Cramer, Jour, of Physiol., 40, I, 1910. 



U E. P. Cathcart, and M. R. Taylor (Glasgow), Jour, of Physiol., 41, 276, 

 1910. 



"G. Lefmann (Heidelberg), Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 57, 476, 1908. 



20 C. J. C. van Hoogenhuyze and H. Verploegh (Pekelharing's Lab., 

 Utrecht), Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 41, 101, 1909. 



a Older literature upon the Relation Between Creatin and Muscular Ac- 

 tivity: Liebig, Sarakow, Ranke, Nawrocki, C. Voit, Monari, Grocco, Moitessier, 

 Gregor; cf. 0. v. Fiirth, Ergebn. d. Physiol., 2, 603-605, 1903. 



M L. B. Mendel and W. C. Rose (Yale Univ.), Jour, of Biol. Chem., 10, 

 213, 1911. 



