320 GLYCURONIC ACID 



for surprise to find that a practically glycogen-free indivi- 

 dual is still capable of producing some glycuronic acid. The 

 problem of its production is to-day not so much as to its 

 derivation from sugar (for this surely can no longer be a 

 subject of doubt), but whether physiologically the normal 

 catabolism of sugar proceeds through glycuronic acid. In 

 the sense of Paul Meyer 's much discussed " theory of in- 

 complete sugar oxidation " many instances of pathological 

 glycuronic acid excretion, not satisfactorily explicable on 

 the assumption of an increased introduction or formation of 

 substances able to combine with it, may be looked on as due 

 to a primary disturbance of the normal sugar catabolism, 

 here becoming stationary in the intermediate stage of 

 glycuronic acid. This might be thought of in many in- 

 stances of glycuronic acid excretion in respiratory disturb- 

 ances, in many intoxications, in very free glycogen supply, 

 and therefore in diabetes. Paul Meyer believes, too, that a 

 heightened excretion of glycuronic acid without evident 

 cause and without coincident increase of elimination of 

 aromatic conjugates in apparently healthy individuals may 

 be looked upon as a precedent of diabetes and as a symptom 

 of incomplete oxidation of sugar. Neuberg very properly 

 suggests, however, that Paul Meyer has not presented 

 exact proof of the correctness of his theory ; that it can only 

 be looked on for the present as a simple expression of the 

 facts observed by him and may perhaps eventually be ex- 

 plained in a totally different way. 52 C. von Noorden, who 

 does not favor the theory above outlined, thinks it incorrect 

 to assign importance to increase of glycuronic acid in 

 diabetes. 53 



Oxaluria. The circumstance that free supply of sugar 

 and glycuronic acid may lead to an increased elimination of 

 oxalic acid and to an increased accumulation of this acid in 

 the liver, and the fact that oxaluria and glycuronic acid ex- 



62 C. Neuberg, H'andb. d. Pathol. d. Stoffwechs., 2d ed., 2, 233-235, 1907. 



63 C. von Noorden, Handb. d. Pathol. d. Stoffwechs., 2d ed., 2, 60, 1907. 



