SEEGEN'S EXPERIMENTS 241 



administered to diabetic human beings and animals, which 

 have proved beyond doubt that this substance is a true 

 sugar- and glycogen-producer. 54 . This was to have been 

 expected when one recalls that Emil Fischer by condensation 

 of the glyceroses, resulting by simple bromoxidation from 

 glycerine, directly obtained sugar (i-fructose) : 55 



CH 2 .OH 

 CH.OH 



CH 2 .OH CH 2 .OH 



CH.OH 



COH CH 2 .OH I 



\_/J. J. 2 V/ -M- A V^J-J. 



CH.OH + CO 



CH. 



OH 



CH 2 .OH. 



However, the fact that glycerine constitutes but a small part 

 (about one-tenth) of the molecule of fat, indicates that the 

 difficult part of the general problem is not in this, but in the 

 question of the production of sugar from the higher fatty 

 acids. 56 Let us therefore at once consider the fundamental 

 facts which have been evolved for this latter. 



Seegen's Experiments. Seegen's conception of a large 

 volume of sugar, originating from protein and fat decom- 

 position, passing from the liver by the hepatic vein and 

 permeating the body, has not withstood criticism any more 

 than his statements (supported by Weiss) of the existence 

 of a process of an autolytic new-formation of sugar in bits 

 of liver tissue digested with fat and soaps. 57 These matters 

 are now all relegated to the past. 



M Van Deen, Luchsinger, Weiss, Salomon, Kiilz, Frerichs, Cremer, Luthje. 

 Literature upon the Formation of Sugar from Glycerine : M. Cremer, Ergebn. d. 

 Physiol., 1' 888-890, 1902; J. Wohlgemuth, ibid., 3', 167, 1910. 



85 Arranged without reference to the stereochemical configuration. 



58 Literature upon the Formation of Sugar from the Higher Fatty Acids : 

 M. Cremer, Ergebn. d. Physiol., 1, 888-895, 1902; A. Magnus-Levy, Noorden's 

 Handb., 1, 178-181, 1906; Handb. d. Biochem., 4' 345-346, 1909. 



67 A. Montuori, Ber. d. Acad. Neapel, 1895, cited in Handb. d. Biochem., 

 3', 167, 1910; M. Jacoby (Salkowski's Lab.), Virchow's Arch., 157, 255, 1897; 

 E. Abderhalden and P. Rona, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 41, 303, 1904. 



16 



