NoveMBER 29, 1918] 
by far the most important contribution of a 
non-systematic nature that has appeared in its 
field in America. 
JosEPH GRINNELL 
MuseEuM OF VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY, 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
SPECIAL ARTICLES 
THE SUBSTITUTION OF SACCHARIN FOR 
SUGAR 
Ir saccharin can be substituted for sugar it 
is evident that it must fulfill the functions of 
sugar and at the same time not produce harm- 
ful effects. As a sweetening agent, to be oxi- 
dized thereby furnishing energy and to in- 
crease oxidation in the body are three func- 
tions of sugar. It would seem that saccharin 
should fulfill admirably the function of sugar 
as a sweetening agent since it is about 500 
times sweeter than sugar. There are some 
who think that the use of saccharin as a 
sweetening agent is harmful. The extensive 
investigations of Herter and Folin! for the 
referee board on the effect of saccharin on the 
nutrition and health of man show that the 
amount of saccharin that would ordinarily be 
used has no deleterious effect. Herter found, 
in fact, that such enormous doses as 4 grams 
of saccharin per kilogram of body weight 
could be given to rabbits without injury. It is 
recognized that saccharin can not fulfill the 
second function of sugar named, for it is not 
oxidized to give rise to energy, but passes 
through the body almost quantitatively un- 
changed. The object of the present investi- 
gation was to determine if it could fulfill the 
third function of sugar named, that is, does 
the ingestion of saccharin increase oxidation 
in the body. We? had already found that the 
ingestion of sugar, as well as the ingestion of 
the other food materials, produced an increase 
in catalase, an enzyme possessing the property 
of liberating oxygen from hydrogen peroxide, 
parallel with the increase produced in oxida- 
tion, by stimulating the digestive glands, par- 
1 Herter and Folin, United States Department of 
Agriculture, Report 94, 1911. 
2Burge and Neill, The American Journal of 
Physiology, Vol. 47, No. 1. 
SCIENCE 
549 
ticularly the liver to an increased output of 
this enzyme. Hence, the conclusion was drawn ° 
that the increase in oxidation following the 
60 5 
$ 
Percentage increase in catalase. 
90 120 
Time in minvtes. 
Fie. 1. Curves showing the increase produced in 
the catalase of the blood by the ingestion of sac- 
charin and of sugar. The figures (0-180) along 
the abscissa indicate time in minutes; the figures 
(0-60) along the ordinate, percentage increase in 
catalase. 
ingestion of food was brought about by the 
increase in catalase. Our contention that cata- 
lase is the enzyme in the body principally 
responsible for oxidation is further supported 
by the fact, that by whatever means oxidation 
is increased in the body, there always results 
a corresponding increase in catalase, and by 
whatever means oxidation is decreased, there 
