432 ACETONE BODIES 



that no parallelism has been recognized between the excre- 

 tion of acetone bodies and the reduction of the body protein 

 (reckoned from the nitrogen output), but that such paral- 

 lelism has been noted in case of reduction of the body-fat in 

 starvation, diabetes, cancer, phosphorus poisoning, and 

 other pathological conditions. Thus Brugsch observed 

 abundant excretion of acetone bodies in case of a profes- 

 sional faster who in spite of the low nutrition to be expected 

 in his calling, had a magnificent fatty panniculus ; whereas in 

 a woman in extreme emaciation, who had not the slightest 

 visible trace of body fat left, no evidence of 1 1 acidosis ' ' could 

 be noted. 2 The striking inhibitory influence manifested 

 upon the excretion of acetone bodies by exhibition of carbo- 

 hydrates is naturally explained by the consequent diminu- 

 tion of the destruction of the body fat. Magnus-Levy noted 

 in a case of diabetic coma the excretion of such large amounts 

 of acetone bodies (more than one- third of a kilogram esti- 

 mated as oxybutyric acid, in the course of three days) that 

 even if the total carbon of the coincident protein destruction 

 were converted into oxybutyric acid (which naturally was 

 not the case) it would not have been equivalent. This ob- 

 servation alone would permit scarcely any other interpreta- 

 tion than that the acetone bodies originate from the fat. 3 



Another and for us an important fact is that frequently 

 the pathological excretion of acetone bodies is associated 

 with a high grade of lipaemia, in evidence of mobilization of 

 the fat from the depots. It was pointed out above that the 

 blood may be so rich in fat in diabetic coma as to look like 

 chocolate and cream. 



Origin of the Acetone Bodies from the Lower Fatty Acids 

 with Even Carbon Atom Chain. There are a number of 

 observations of an increased excretion of acetone bodies 



2 Brugsch, Zeitschr. f. exper. Pathol., 1,,426, 1905. 

 A. Magnus-Levy, 1. c., p. 184. 



