DECOMPOSITION OF PROTEIN 235 



Cantani, Bendix, Prausnitz, Cremer, Liithje, O. Lowi, Mag- 

 nus-Levy, Graham Lusk, Friedrich Kraus, Mohr, Falta, 

 Gigon, and others. 38 It was proved time and time again 

 that the glycogen supply of the body cannot possibly account 

 for the large quantities of sugar excreted in the urine ; and 

 the many observations upon the relation D | N (Dextrose: 

 Nitrogen) indicate, in a manner which, to the writer's mind, 

 must be convincing to any unprejudiced person, that there 

 exists a relation between sugar formation and protein de- 

 composition. Positive statements were sure to be given 

 after findings like those of Liithje, 39 who fed a dog whose 

 pancreas had been removed upon carbohydrate-free diet for 

 a protracted period and in the end found that four times 

 more sugar had been excreted by the animal than could have 

 possibly been deposited in the form of reserve carbohydrate 

 (following Pfliiger's maximal figures for the quantity of 

 glycogen in the tissues). Finally even the indefatigable 

 sceptic of Bonn was forced to acknowledge that the sugar 

 produced by a diabetic individual could not possibly come 

 from the glycogen constituent of the body, and that it must 

 arise from some other source which he was unwilling to 

 accept as protein but was inclined to put down as fat. Later 

 on the pros and cons of sugar formation from fat will be 

 taken up ; here it is proper to say only that Pfliiger did not 

 continue in this interpretation. He found in dogs, whose 

 supply of glycogen had been much reduced by starvation 

 and phloridzin, and which were then fed upon codfish meat, 

 which is very poor in carbohydrates, such a marked ac- 

 cumulation of glycogen in the liver that he frankly acknowl- 

 edged it as due to the formation of sugar from protein. 



40 



88 Literature upon Formation of Sugar from Protein : M. Cremer, Ergebn. 

 d. Physiol., 1, 872-887, 1902; L. Langstein, ibid., 1, 62-109, 1902; 3, 453-496, 

 1904; R. Tigerstedt, Nagel's Handb. d. Physiol., 1, 502-508, 1905; E. Weinland, 

 ibid., 2, 440-442, 1907 ; A. Magnus-Levy, Handb. d. Biochem., 4', 340-345, 346- 

 356, 1909; J. Wohlgemuth, ibid., 5', 165-166, 1910. 



" H. Liithje, Deutsch. Arch, f . klin. Med., 79, 498, 1904. 



40 E. Pfluger and P. Junkersdorf, Pniiger's Arch., 131, 201, 1910. 



