434 ACETONE BODIES 



appreciably increase the elimination of acetone bodies, and, 

 too, in greater proportion than the exhibition of the higher 

 fatty acids. A. Lowy and B. Ehrmann saw a deep and per- 

 sistent coma occur in butyric acid poisoning, while in poison- 



/~1TT 



ing with isobutyric acid, 'NcH COOH (the branched chain 



of which is unable to pass over into -oxybutyrie acid), noth- 

 ing in the least comparable was noted. 6 



C. von Noorden recommends that the butter intended for 

 diabetics be thoroughly worked with water in order to re- 

 move the butyric acid. 



In close consonance with the above conception of fatty 

 acid catabolism is the fact that only the normal fatty acids 

 with an even number of carbon atoms are productive of 

 acetone bodies, as Embden found experimentally by perfu- 

 sion of the liver, and Bar and Blum found in diabetics (vide 

 supra, p. 393). 



As a-aminoacids in catabolism are first deprived of one 

 member it can be easily understood why a-aminovalerianic 

 acid (but not a-aminobutyric acid or normal a-aminocaproic 

 acid) may be classed with the acetone producers : 7 



CH, 



GHz 



1 ie. 



CH 2 CH 2 CH.OH 



CH.NH 2 CH 2 CH 2 



COOH COOH COOH. 



Possibility of Disintegration of the Longer Fatty Acid 

 Chains into Short Parts. The above presented mode of 

 formation of oxybutyric acid from higher fatty acids indi- 

 cates one possibility of this connection, but not the only one 



A. Lowy, Berliner physiol. Ges., Dec. 16, 1910; A. Lowy, together with 

 R. Ehrmann and P. Esser, Zeitschr. f. klin. Med., 72, 496, 500, 502, 1911. 



T G. Embden and A. Marx, Hofmeister's Beitr., 11, 318, 1908; J. Bar 

 and L. Blum, 1. c. 



