446 ACETONE BODIES 



uct. In healthy individuals the oxybutyric acid would be 

 converted by oxidation into carbonic acid and water, the 

 diacetic acid not appearing as an intermediary product. In 

 case of interference with the normal catabolism of oxy- 

 butyric acid, however, a false route would be interposed: 

 oxidation into diacetic acid, and then formation of acetone 

 by splitting off carbon dioxide. It may be thus conceived 

 why in a healthy individual (as contrasted with the diabetic 

 subject) even large quantities of oxybutyric acid do not give 

 rise to diacetic acid production, 36 and why in perfusion ex- 

 periments on the normal liver (in contrast to a phloridzin 

 liver) the amounts of oxybutyric acid decomposed are in 

 absolute disproportion to the newly formed diacetic acid. 37 

 An example of the saying that when the proper time ar- 

 rives for a truth it falls like a ripe fruit from the tree of 

 knowledge, is to be seen in the fact that by chance E. Fried- 

 mann in Berlin, O. Neubauer in Munich, H. D. Dakin in New 

 York, and L. Blum in Strassburg, all recognized at the very 

 same time that the passage of oxybutyric acid into diacetic 

 acid is a reversible process, and that the economy is not only 

 able to oxidize the former into the latter, but may in reverse 

 manner reduce diacetic acid into oxybutyric acid : 



CH,.CH(OH).CH 2 .COOH < > CH 3 .CO.CH 2 .COOH.*> 



How the /?- oxybutyric acid undergoes combustion in the 

 normal body is unknown ; it might be supposed that it breaks 

 down into acetic acid : 



CH 3 - CH(OH) - CH 2 - COOH + = 2 CH 3 .COOH; 



but it is by no means certain that it is entirely consumed. It 

 is not impossible that the oxybutyric acid may enter into 



M L. Sehwarz, Zeehuyzen, Araki and others. 



87 B. O. Przibram (F. Kraus's Clinic), Zeitschr. f. exper. Pathol., 10, 1912. 



38 E. Friedmann and Maase (Berlin), Munchener med. Wochenschr., 1910, 

 No. 34; Biochem. Zeitschr., 27, 474, 1910; O. Neubauer, 1. c.; L. Blum, Intern. 

 Kongr., 1910, Munchener med. Wochenschr., 57, 1910; H. D. Dakin (New 

 York), Jour, of Biol. Chem., 8, 97, 1910; A. J. Wakeman and H. D. Dakin, 

 ibid., 105. 



