HIGHER FATTY ACIDS 243 



certainty which is essential for precision in a physical ex- 

 periment of this sort. 



Sugar Nitrogen Quotient. Further evidence of the for- 

 mation of sugar from fat has been recognized in observations 

 upon the sugar-nitrogen quotient, D | N. In many cases of 

 severe diabetes in man and the lower animals such large 

 amounts of sugar, in comparison with the nitrogen output, 

 have been met that protein decomposition does not seem 

 sufficient to explain the sugar production ; and it has seemed 

 impossible not to refer it in part at least to formation from 

 fat. 59 The possible correctness of this mode of interpreta- 

 tion cannot be well denied; but such observations cannot 

 readily be accepted as complete proof, 60 particularly because 

 fundamentally in these conclusions we have to take into 

 consideration the tacit assumption that the nitrogen output 

 at a given time is invariably regarded as a correct indicator 

 of the protein decomposition going on in the body. 

 0. Lowi 61 has, however, called attention to the important 

 point that this assumption does not always obtain in full. 

 Nitrogen retention in the body may exist at times, and it is 

 possible that the protein decomposition may be actually 

 greater than the coincident nitrogen elimination would 

 indicate. 



Fat Impoverishment in Phloridzin Animals. Kolisch's 

 observation that white mice in chronic phloridzin intoxica- 

 tion (in comparison with control animals) show extensive 

 impoverishment of fat, is distinctly interesting, but not at 

 all conclusive from this standpoint. 61 a 



Influence of the Introduction of the Higher Fatty Acids 

 Upon Sugar Elimination. It might be supposed that the 



58 Observations by Rumpf, Liithje, Hartogh and Schumm, Rosenquist, Mohr, 

 Hesse, Junkersdorf, Pfluger's Arch., 137, 269, 1910, and of v. Noorden's school. 



80 Cf. criticism of above by F. v. Miiller, Landergren and Magnus-Levy, 

 Literature: A. Magnus-Levy, v. Noorden's Handb., 2d ed., 1, 178, 1906, and 

 Handb. d. Biochem., -)', 345, 1909. 



61 0. Lowi (Lab. of H. H. Meyer, Marburg), Arch. f. exper. Pathol., 47, 

 68, 1902. 



wa Kolisch, Wiener, klin. Wochenschr., 19, 559, 1906. 



