v INTERNAL EESTITUTIVE SECRETIONS 337 



De Filippi's latest experiments (1899) on dogs with Eck's 

 fistula partially confirm the results of the Kussian school. De 

 Filippi states that with a mixed diet dogs are able to live for 

 months in good condition, and even to put on weight. When fed 

 with raw meat, they suffer after 2-3 days from vomiting, and 

 refuse their food. If forced to swallow it, the phenomena of auto- 

 intoxication described by the Russian observers set in on the third 

 or fourth day. But as compared with these cases, he noted others 

 in which even a protracted flesh diet produced no disorder, or at 

 most a general progressive emaciation. The season apparently 

 has great influence on the acute or chronic effects of an Eck's 

 fistula. In winter acute intoxication never fails, and may even 

 appear with a mixed diet ; while in summer some cases are re- 

 fractory to poisoning, even with a continuous flesh diet. The 

 intoxication produced by raw meat does not depend, according to 

 De Filippi, on the amount of nitrogenous constituents, because a 

 vegetable diet rich in proteins, as well as meat extracted with hot 

 or cold water, produces no sign of poisoning. On the other hand, 

 concentrated aqueous solutions of meat produce toxic symptoms 

 after 4-5 days, which are fatal in a short time. 



De Filippi's experiments on the metabolism of a number of 

 dogs with Eck's fistula led to very irregular results, which differed 

 considerably in different animals. The most remarkable pheno- 

 mena are as follows : 



(a) The total nitrogen eliminated with the urine is as a rule 

 much less than the nitrogen introduced with the food, even taking 

 into consideration that eliminated with the faeces. We do not 

 know the form in which this nitrogen is retained ; it does not 

 seem to be eliminated by the lungs in the form of ammonia. 



(&) A marked diminution in the urea eliminated by the 

 kidneys corresponds with the retention of nitrogen, while the 

 ammoniacal nitrogen increases, and the uric acid is doubled or 

 even trebled. 



(c) The nitrogenous extractives of the urine increase in dogs 

 fed on aqueous extract of meat, as compared with normal dogs, a 

 proof that they are either not converted into urea, or to a minimal 

 extent only. 



(cT) In all fasting dogs provided with Eck's fistula, De Filippi 

 observed that the administration of 100 grms. glucose, lactose, or 

 saccharose is followed by glycosuria, which is not the case in 

 normal dogs. It appears half an hour after ingestion, and lasts 

 3-4 hours. With ingestion of glucose the glycosuria is less persistent 

 and less intense (O'2-l per cent). Sometimes it is entirely absent, 

 which may be explained as meaning that the glucose can be 

 converted into glycogen and stored up by the muscles as well as 

 the liver, to which it is conveyed by the blood of the hepatic 

 artery. 



VOL. II Z 



