Scientific Proceedings. 



ii5 



v. Brugsch and Hirsch fed 20 gm. of glycocoll 1 to a fasting 

 woman on the twelfth day of her fast and observed that all of its 

 nitrogen appeared in the urine as urea. Samuely 2 had likewise 

 observed this fate (chiefly) of glycocoll nitrogen when glycocoll was 

 added to meat and other foodstuffs in the diet of dogs suffering from 

 artificial anemia. But Liithje 3 reports a nitrogen retention, with 

 asparagin and glycocoll as the only sources ol nitrogen, provided 

 carbohydrates are fed freely at the same time. He thinks there 

 may be a synthesis of the amino acids with carbohydrate and the 

 formation of an " amino sugar," which escapes the destructive 

 processes of the body. 



It has appeared in my experiments with gelatin that the 

 power of the body to conserve its nitrogen supply is stronger the 

 lower the proteid condition of the animal at the time of feeding. 

 For the purpose of testing the power of retaining glycocoll nitro- 

 gen therefore, I prepared the dogs by subjecting them to long 

 periods of fasting or under-nutrition. For example, a dog weigh- 

 ing in good condition 6.5 kg. fasted for 13 days, during which 

 the weight fell to 4.8 kg. Then for two weeks more he was kept 

 in under-nutrition as regards proteid, for the purpose of a gelatin 

 experiment. At the end of the month the weight had been re- 

 duced to 4.2 kg. The total output of nitrogen on the last day of 

 a fasting period at this time was 1.247 gm. By feeding for 

 a period of 5 days, 6.4 gm. of proteid-free gelatin and supplying 

 over 100 cal. per kg. of energy (chiefly in the form of carbo- 

 hydrates), the output of nitrogen was reduced to 0.406 gm. 

 Ten days later on a diet containing 0.491 gm. of nitrogen in 

 the form of beef heart and 150 cal. per kg. (weight still 4.2 kg.), 

 the dog was almost in nitrogen equilibrium (— 0.02). To this diet 

 w r ere then added 5 gm. of glycocoll containing 0.951 gm. nitro- 

 gen, bringing the total nitrogen ingested up to 1.442 gm. 

 The diet was continued for five days, on four of which there 

 was nitrogen retention — a total for the period of 0.257 gm. But 

 on the day following when the glycocoll was dropped and when 

 there should have been nitrogen equilibrium, as there was previ- 



l v. Brugsch and Hirsch : Zeitschr. f. ex. Path. u. Ther., 1906, p. 638. 

 2 Samuely : Deutsch. Arch. f. klin. Med., 1906, p. 220. 



'Liithje: P/luger* s Arch., cxiii, summary p. 604; also Kongress f. inn. Med., 

 1906, p. 440. 



