CARBOHYDRATE DEFICIENCY AND ACIDOSIS 439 



This possible mode of explanation, unless forced, fails, how- 



t , ^ . CH 8 -CH 2 -CH-OOOH, 



ever, in case of a-methylbutyric acid, I 



CHj 



from which by analogous procedure a-oxybutyric acid should 

 arise. There is particularly no possibility of explaining by 

 this means the fact that a tricarbon complex like glycerol 19 

 and that certain benzol derivatives, whose ring is subject to 

 disintegration in the animal body, like phenylalanin, C 6 H 5 - 



OH 

 CH 2 - CH.NH 2 - COOH, and tyrosin, / 



CH^-CH z CH.NH r -COOH, 



must be classed among acetone forming substances. And as 

 the formation of acetone bodies from these latter can be con- 

 ceived synthetically possible only from groups containing 

 but few carbon atoms, the question at once arises whether in 

 case of the formation of /?-oxybutyric acid from normal 

 higher fatty acids the process may not follow pretty much 

 the line of explanation proposed by Friedmann. This in the 

 author's opinion can be made to fit in, too, with Embden's 

 observation upon the contrast between acids with even and 

 with odd numbers of carbon atoms. It is, however, quite as 

 likely that the development of /3-oxybutyric acid in the 

 economy takes place in different ways : that it may be formed 

 from stearic acid, for example, by "two-atom shortening 

 of the chain/ 7 but from tyrosin by way of synthesis of two- 

 carbon-atom compounds. 



Carbohydrate Deficiency and Acidosis. In what relation, 

 next, does the appearance of the acetone bodies stand to the 

 carbohydrate exchange in the economy? Allusion has been 

 made above to the distinct "antiketogenic" influence of 

 carbohydrates, along with the statement that this may be 

 fully explained on the basis of an inhibition of fat decom- 

 position because of the combustible material thus introduced 

 into the body. To the author's way of thinking, this makes 

 all other complicated theories entirely superfluous, espe- 



10 F. Reach (A. Durig's Lab., Vienna), Biochem. Zeitschr., 14, 279, 1908. 



