406 GLYCOGEN FORMATION AFTER 



n. 



GLYCOGEN FORMATION AFTER INULIN FEEDING. 

 BY B. NAKASEKO. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



THE carbohydrate inulin, which readily breaks down to 

 levulose by hydrolysis with acids, has long been suggested as 

 a suitable foodstuff in those forms of diabetes in which 

 levulose can be utilized.* Sandmeyer,f however, found that 

 inulin was very poorly utilized in diabetic dogs, a large part of 

 the ingested carbohydrate being eliminated again unchanged in 

 the faeces. In view of the marked effect which levulose, in 

 common with many other carbohydrates, exerts in increasing 

 the glycogen-content of the liver, it was natural to look for a 

 similar result in the case of inulin-feeding. To test this possi- 

 bility, Miura J carried out a series of experiments on rabbits in 

 Kiilz's laboratory several years ago. Precaution was taken to 

 procure pure inulin for feeding, and the glycogen of the liver 

 was estimated by the Briicke-Kiilz method. The rabbits had 

 all been starved for six days to reduce the store of glycogen in 

 the liver to a minimum ; thereupon the inulin was adminis- 

 tered in small doses at hourly or half-hourly intervals, in 

 order to offer the most favorable conditions for inversion and 

 absorption. The total quantity of carbohydrate ingested 

 varied from ten to twenty-five grams per animal, and the 

 rabbits were killed ten or twelve hours after the adminis- 

 tration of the last dose. As a basis for comparison Miura 

 took the glycogen determinations made by Klilz on fasting 

 rabbits. Kiilz found as a maximum for the glycogen-content 



* Kiilz, Beitrage zur Pathologic und Therapie des Diabetes Mellitus, Mar- 

 burg, 1874. 



t Sandmeyer, Zeitschrift fur Biologie, 1894, xxri, p. 32. 



t Miura, Zeitschrift fur Biologie, 1895, xxxii, p. 256. The references to 

 the older literature on inulin-feeding are given in this paper. 



Kiilz, Festschrift f iir C. Ludwig, 1890, p. 69 ; Centralblatt fur Physiologic, 

 1890, iv, p. 788. 



