210 



Scientific Proceedings (128) 



to increased permeability of the kidneys, but to a functional dis- 

 turbance of the glycogen-forming organs. The results indicate 

 that there is a relation between sugar tolerance and blood cal- 

 cium in these animals. 



5. Guanidin injections in a normal dog in amounts large 

 enough to produce violent convulsions did not alter the serum 

 calcium but produced hyperglycemia and lowering of the alkali 

 reserve; phosphates remained normal. 



These experiments show that the characteristic feature in the 

 chemistry of parathyroid insufficiency is the drop in blood cal- 

 cium, which is more marked the more parathyroid tissue is re- 

 moved. They suggest that the parathyroids control the calcium 

 metabolism and by doing so they influence the function not only 

 of the muscle and nerve tissue, but probably of all organs. When 

 the parathyroids are removed, the threshold for the excretion of 

 calcium in the intestines is lowered. The behavior of the blood 

 calcium indicates that the actual recovery of completely para- 

 thyroidectomized dogs in these experiments is not due to com- 

 pensatory hypertrophy of accessory glands, as the action of these 

 would have been to restore the blood calcium to the normal level ; 

 the "adaptation" to a low calcium level, which in the beginning 

 causes tetany, is not explained. 



102 (2062) 



Experimental diabete gras. 

 By G. A. FRIEDMAN and J. GOTTESMAN. 



[From the Department of Clinical Pathology, College of Physicians 

 and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York City] 



French authors, especially Lancereaux, 1 have described two 

 types of diabetes mellitus : diabete maigre and diabete gras. 

 Lancereaux believed that the former was due to pancreatic dis- 



i Lancereaux, quoted by E. L. Opie, Diseases of the Pancreas, 1903, p. 308. 



