216 INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 



kind of intoxication, where this is of digestive rather 

 than of metabolic origin. It appears to me very ques- 

 tionable whether one ever meets with cases of marked 

 acid intoxication referable to the absorption of excessive 

 quantities of organic acids formed in the digestive 

 tract, but there is some reason to think that in young 

 children a moderate degree of acidosis sometimes has 

 its main origin in fermentative disturbances in the 

 intestine. 



Oxalic Acid and Oxaluria. It is now well established 

 that various molds and bacteria are capable of acting 

 upon media containing sugar, in such a manner as to give 

 rise to the formation of oxalic acid. The thought that 

 considerable quantities of oxalic acid may arise in the 

 digestive tract as the result of fermentative decomposi- 

 tion led Baldwin l to make studies with a view to learn- 

 ing whether oxaluria can be experimentally induced in 

 dogs by feeding large amounts of sugar together with 

 food (such as meat) which contains no oxalic acid. It 

 was found in these experiments that oxaluria was not 

 readily induced in this manner in healthy dogs, but that 

 prolonged feeding of sugar in large quantities eventually 

 led to a state of oxaluria. This experimental oxaluria 

 was associated with a disturbance of function in the 

 gastric mucous membrane during which large quantities 

 of mucus were formed. The contents ob tamed from 

 the stomach under these conditions failed to show the 

 presence of hydrochloric acid. It seems clear that the 



1 "An Experimental Study of Oxaluria, with Special Reference 

 to its Fermentative Origin," Journ. of Exper. Med., v, p. 27, 1900. 



