HENRY G. BAEBOUR 



The Amino Acids. Increase of the total metabolism and body tem- 

 perature (Lusk(e) ), also the uric acid metabolism, by the amino acids has 

 been well established (Lewis and Doisy). 



Atropin, Pilocarpin, etc. Total Metabolism. Edsall and Means as 

 well as Higgins and Means found the respiratory exchange increased 

 after milligram doses of atropin in human subjects. On the other hand, 

 Keleman, employing large doses in dogs, finds a decrease in the carbon 

 dioxid output. This antagonizes the ten per cent increase in the 

 metabolism which he has found after pilocarpin, confirming the ob- 

 servations of Frank and Voit(fr). The relative role of secretory and 

 smooth muscle activity has been discussed by Loewi. An energetic pilo- 

 carpin sialorrhea may deplete the blood fluid sufficiently to cause a rise of 

 temperature with consequent increase in the total metabolism. 



Protein Metabolism. Either fifteen milligrams of pilocarpin or ten 

 milligrams of atropin increased the nitrogen excretion in Eichelberg's 

 experiments. There was a slight phosphate increase as well. With 

 scopolamin de Stella observed in two rabbits and two dogs a consistent fall 

 in nitrogen, chlorids, phosphates, and water in the urine. Uremia has 

 been described in muscarin poisoning by Clark, Marshall and Rowntree, 

 who found it due to renal impairment. 



Purin Metabolism. Abl found that atropin prevents the uric acid in- 

 crease after cinchophen ; Mendel and Stehle found the postprandial uric 

 acid increase inhibited by the same drug. 



Carbohydrate Metabolism. Raphael and others have described 

 glycosuria in atropin poisoning. Pitini, as well as MacGuigan(a), has ob- 

 served that large doses increase the blood sugar. The conception was 

 at one time prevalent that atropin was of value in the treatment of diabetes 

 and in fact that it inhibited glycogenolysis. Mosenthal(fe) has shown that 

 the view that atropin increases the tolerance for sugar is unsupported by 

 valid evidence. 



Ross(6) finds that atropin reduces markedly the ether hyperglycemi* 

 for example, from a forty-one per cent increase to a nine per cent increas 

 in the first fifteen minutes, and from a fifty-seven per cent increase to a 

 twenty-one per cent increase in the first hour. Atropin alone did not 

 affect the blood sugar content. 



According to MacGuigan pilocarpin may cause a delayed reductioi 

 in the blood sugar content. In massive doses atropin fails to lessen the 

 hyperglycemia due to stimulation of the celiac plexus. 



Mushroom (muscarin) poisoning may provoke renal glycosuria, a( 

 cording to Alexander. 



Water Metabolism. Pilocarpin has no direct action upon the urine 

 (J. B. MacCallum), but owing to the great loss of fluid by other channel 

 Asher and Bruck state that it usually diminishes the water and chlorids 



