PHOSPHORUS starvation: II. 105 



for a purely vegetable diet. 38 During period V the output of nitrogen 

 in the urine alone is greater than the amount taken in. In all this series 

 of experiments the quantity of phosphorus which appears in the feces is 

 somewhat higher than in the foregoing, but this is scarcely regarded as of 

 importance. The fact that in period VII all the phosphorus from the 

 phytin so far as it is again excreted, reappears in the feces seems to me 

 deserving of more attention, the quantity of phosphorus in the urine 

 not being increased at all. The explanation given above for this excretion 

 of phosphorus through the feces probably also holds good. (See p. 103.) 

 Our conclusions, deduced from the above experiments in their relation 

 to beriberi, are as follows : 



(1) A diet consisting of bread and rice (both poor in phosphorus), 

 some fat (bacon) and sugar, furnishing 40 calories, 0.15 gram 1ST and 

 0.025 gram P 2 5 per kilo body weight does not cover the demands of the 

 body for N and P 2 5 and therefore leads to N and P 2 s loss from the 

 body. Addition of protein reduces the 1ST loss of the body and the loss 

 of P„0- slightly. 



(2) The addition of phosphorus in the'form of phytin prevents a loss 

 of that constituent from the bod)', and if sufficient of this element is 

 added a storage of phosphorus after a period of phosphorus starvation 

 takes place. The loss of nitrogen from the body is reduced by the 

 addition of phytin, as compared with a corresponding period in which 

 phytin is not given. 



(3) A diet consisting of fish, bread, rice, sugar, etc., furnishing 37- 

 calories, 0.2 gram of nitrogen and 0.032 gram of P 2 5 per kilo of body 

 weight, is sufficient to keep a man in nitrogen and P 2 5 equilibrium. 



(4) The addition of rice bran has a tendency to produce a slight 

 storage of P 2 5 ; the rice polish in this respect corresponding to phytin. 

 The phosphorus, both of rice and of phytin, is excreted almost entirely 

 in the feces. 



METABOLISM EXPEEIMENTS ON A BERIBERI PATIENT. " 



We next attempted to study the metabolism of a beriberi patient under 

 the same conditions. The work so far done in this connection is very 

 limited. 



. Schaumann, 3 in conjunction with his researches, states that the urine in 

 eases of beriberi has a very low content of phosphorus, and Durham M found the 

 metabolism in beriberi to be depressed, the urine having a low content of urea, 

 phosphates, etc. I do not believe that these facts are of very great importance, 

 because we know nothing concerning the food taken at the time and its content 

 of phosphorus. 



Scheube 40 also has made a number of analyses of urine in cases of beriberi 

 and comes to the conclusion that in this disease metabolism is lowered. 



SB Yukawa, Geuyo, Arch. f. Verd.-Krank. (1909), 15, 477-524, 609-646. 



38 Brit. Med. Journ. (1904), 2, 27. 



"Deutsches Arch. f. klin. Med. (1882), 31, 141, 307. 



