886 ALFKED F. HESS 



on the constituents of the blood and the tissues of guinea pigs fed on an 

 exclusive oat diet. They found the urea content several times greater than 

 normal, but that it fell to normal once more if cabbage or orange juice 

 were given. From the standpoint of scurvy, this investigation is open to 

 the criticism that the diet was too incomplete, and also, as the authors 

 suggest, that the animals suffered from partial starvation and a lack of 

 water. 



In the following year Karr and Lewis published a paper on a different 

 phase of this subject, and came to the following conclusions : "JSTo changes 

 in urinary elimination of phenols, nor in the degree of conjugation of 

 the phenols, were observed, provided the factor of partial starvation was 

 ruled out. This is believed to indicate that no increased bacterial action 

 occurs in the intestine of scorbutic guinea pigs, despite the difficulty of 

 evacuation of the feces." These results are in harmony with the bacterio- 

 logical study of Torrey and Hess, who found that there was no increase 

 in the proteolytic flora of the intestine in infants, or in guinea pigs suffer- 

 ing from scurvy. 



In 1917 Baumann and Howard published the only metabolism study 

 which has been carried out on guinea pigs suffering from scurvy, and 

 they are of the opinion that this disorder has a profound effect on the 

 mineral metabolism of this animal. The calcium was excreted in notably 

 large amount; potassium was also lost, and to a greater extent than 

 sodium; the only element which was consistently retained during the 

 active stage, as well as during the period of recovery, was magnesium. 

 This study was followed shortly by one from the same laboratory by 

 Howard and Ingvaldsen, carried out on a monkey suffering from scurvy. 

 It was inconclusive, not conforming to the experiments on the guinea pigs ; 

 the authors state that the "changes in the mineral excretion of the monkey 

 during the scorbutic period were not sufficiently significant to admit of 

 easy interpretation." "The marked loss of the various mineral sub- 

 stances encountered in experiments with man and guinea pig was not 

 observed in the present series." It should be remembered, however, that 

 the diets of the guinea pigs and the monkeys were quite different, the 

 former consisting mainly of oats, and the latter of condensed milk. It is 

 quite possible that the basic diet may play a role in the metabolism of 

 this disease, although, as stated elsewhere, its effect cannot be noted clin- 

 ically. Special attention should be paid to this factor in metabolic 

 studies, in view of the widely held opinion that the carbohydrates exert a 

 potent influence in the development of beriberi. 



The investigations of the nitrogen metabolism in scurvy in man and in 

 animals have been most unsatisfactory. The two on human beings an 

 infant and an adult were negative ; that on guinea pig scurvy cannot be 

 utilized on account of the restricted diet of oats, which contained insuffi- 

 cient nitrogen, whereas the one on the monkey showed some loss of nitre- 



