SUGAR CATABOLISM FROM ALKALI 341 



the formed elements. 28 In serum they could recognize no 

 loss of sugar or only a very slight diminution. The recent 

 observations of Levene, of the Eockef eller Institute, of New 

 York, are also of special importance in this relation. The 

 latter noted that solutions of glucose under the influence of 

 leucocytes lose a part of their reducing power (and this is 

 not restored by boiling with a mineral acid, and is, therefore, 

 surely not the result of a simple molecular condensation). 

 The fact that a neutral reaction was maintained in this ex- 

 periment by means of Henderson's phosphate mixture is of 

 special significance. If water was employed instead the 

 effect was lost; addition of tuluol also proved deleterious. 

 Levene, just as Slosse, found that lactic acid appears in the 

 catabolism of sugar. 29 



Sugar Catabolism from the Influence of Alkali. In re- 

 viewing the foregoing material which, in spite of the extent 

 of literature devoted to it, is decidedly inadequate, and in 

 trying to obtain a picture of the process of sugar decomposi- 

 tion in the living body, in the author's opinion the above 

 mentioned observations of Slosse upon the catabolism of 

 sugar in the blood stand out prominently. 



Slosse very properly referred to the analogies which his 

 observations suggested to the behavior of sugar under mild 

 influence of caustic alkalies. 



Kiliani, about the beginning of the eighties made the 

 development of lactic acid from sugar the subject of careful 

 investigation ; Framm 30 later on observed the appearance 

 of aldehyde and of formic acid when air is passed through 

 alkaline solutions of sugar. Still later Buchner, Meisen- 

 heimer and Schade 31 noted that if they allowed a solution 

 of sugar in dilute caustic soda to stand for some weeks or 



28 P. Rona and A. Doblin ( Krankenhaus am Urban, Berlin), Biochem. 

 Zeitschr., 82, 489, 1911. 



29 Levene and Meyer, Jour, of Biol. Chem., 11, 361, 1912; 12, 265, 1912. 



30 F. Framm (O. Nasse's Lab., Rostock), Pfliiger's Arch., 64, 587, 1896. 

 "Buchner, Meisenheimer, Schade, Ber. d. deutsch. chem. Ges., 38, 623, 



1905; 39, 4217, 1906; 41, 1009, 1908; Schade, Zeitschr. f. physikal. Chem., 57, 

 1, 1906; cited in Biochem. Centralbl., 5, No. 2311. 



