Bonv Fat as Precursors of Acetone Bodies 189 



This comparatively rapid passing of the "alkaline tide" was the 

 only change in urine reaction found. The experiment certainly 

 did not show an increased alkalinity of the urine after the ad- 

 ministration of adrenalin comparable to that which follows 

 polypnea 4 , but further experiments with increased amounts of 

 adrenalin would be necessary to prove definitely that an in- 

 creased urinary acidity results from the use of the drug. The 

 marked tremor and other disagreeable symptoms experienced 

 during the experiment make the undertaking of such investiga- 

 tions upon human subjects a rather serious matter. 



The experiment reported furnishes some evidence that the 

 lowered carbon dioxide combining capacity of the plasma which 

 follows injection of adrenalin chloride does not resemble, in 

 some of its accompanying phenomena, that which is produced 

 by polypnea. 



91 (2051) 



Ingested fat and body fat as precursors of the acetone bodies. 



By ROGER S. HUBBARD. 



[From the Clifton Springs Sanitarium, Clifton Spring?,, N. Y.] 



An experiment was carried out to determine whether body 

 fat and ingested fat give rise to equal amounts of the acetone 

 bodies. A normal woman took a diet which furnished twenty 

 per cent, more calories than her calculated basal requirement, 

 and which consisted of 45 grams of protein, 45 grams of carbo- 

 hydrate, and 160 grams of fat. The excretion of aceto-acetic 

 acid, /?-hydroxybutyic acid, and nitrogen were determined daily 

 by methods previously described 1 . The amounts of the acetone 

 bodies excreted were ten to twenty times the amounts excreted 

 by the subject when she was on a normal diet, but the total 

 amounts (0.25 grams of acetone from all of the acetone bodies) 



4Collip and Backus, Am. J. Physiol, 1920, li, 568; Grant and Goldman, 

 ibid., 1920, lii, 209. 



i Hubbard and Wright, J. Biol. Chem., 1922, 1, 361. 



