432 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—I. 
on by several groups of investigators. We are interested in this investigation, 
with the effects produced on the normal and diabetic dog by the administration 
of varying amounts of insulin. The results indicate that a small dose (10 units) 
may exert as rapid and nearly as prolonged an effect upon the blood sugar of 
a normal dog as a much larger dose (100 units). A study of the symptoms 
produced in dogs by large doses of insulin has been made. 
30. Dr. J. H. Burn.—The Factors controlling the normal output of 
Sugar from the Liver. 
31. Dr. E. C. Arsrirron.—Blood Sugar during continuous Intra- 
venous Injection of Glucose. 
Continuous intravenous injection of glucose at the rate of 0.7 gram per kilo. 
per hour into a superficial vein in dogs resulted in persistent hyperglycemia 
during the injection, averaging 50 mgm. per 100 cc. above the initial level. 
Injection was made for two and a-half hours in twenty-two experiments. In 
only one of these did the elevated sugar-level fall to its initial value during the 
injection period. Injection for periods of five hours in dogs under amytal 
anesthesia gave a similarly persistent hyperglycemia. In ten experiments in 
which very frequent blood samples were taken irregular oscillations were found 
to occur in the blood-sugar level. These oscillations averaged 15 mgm. per 
100 cc. in amplitude and fifteen minutes in period. They were not due to 
irregularities in the rate of injection, nor to experimental error. Similar 
oscillations did not occur in the hemoglobin percentage. 
In thirteen dogs under amytal anesthesia the sugar was injected into the 
arterial circulation of the pancreas in order to subject the gland to the influence 
of a stronger concentration of sugar. In eight of the resulting curves the 
hyperglycemia was persistent as before, and in six even higher than usual. 
In five it was either markedly lower than usual or only transient, gradually 
falling to or below the initial sugar-level. Such low blood-sugar curves are 
interpreted as evidence of more active loss of sugar from the blood than the 
curves in which the hyperglycemia persists. 
The high proportion of these low curves in the injections into the pancreas, 
five out of thirteen, as compared with one out of twenty-two in the injections 
into a superficial vein, indicates that subjection of the pancreas to a higher 
blood-sugar may cause a more active loss of sugar from the blood. It is con- 
cluded (1) that unexplained fluctuations may repeatedly occur in the course of 
the blood-sugar curve during glucose injection at the rate used; (2) evidence is 
adduced which favours the hypothesis that the blood-sugar is the stimulus to 
insulin discharge. 
32. Dr. P. J. Motonsy and Dr. D. M. Frypuay.—Further contribu- 
tions to the Chemistry of Insulin. 
The paper has to do with properties and the purification of insulin. It 
reviews earlier work of the authors on adsorption as a inethod of purification ; 
details a plan for the application of this method to the purification of insulin, 
and gives results obtained. Work with some new precipitating agents for 
insulin is reported, and the possible significance of some of the reactions involved 
is pointed out. 
33. Prof. E. P. Carucart, C.B.E., F.R.S.—The Significance of the 
Respiratory Quotient. 
The question of the meaning of the R.Q. is one of importance at the present 
moment, as the estimation of the energy expenditure by the indirect method, 
which is now so much in vogue, is based on the relation between the oxygen 
utilised and the carbon dioxide given off. 
Emphasis is laid on the fact that the respiratory quotient is not an entity; 
it is the resultant of the interaction of many forms of activity, in part physical, 
in part chemical. 
It is common experience that R.Qs are obtained which lie above and below 
the nominal values for the perfect combustion of carbohydrate and fat, These 
