266 



Society Proceedings (122). 



It is prohibitive to feed diabetic patients, who have a very 

 low carbohydrate tolerance, even a moderate amount of natural 

 fat, because of the danger of inducing a severe ketosis which may 

 prove fatal. It was thought advisable, therefore, to prepare a 

 synthetic fat to contain fatty acids of odd-carbon number, which, 

 if they are absorbed and if the theory of intermediate fat meta- 

 bolism described above, holds, should catabolize in the body 

 without the production of the acetoacetic acid, etc. 



In collaboration with Dr. H. O. Nolan such synthetic fat was 

 made and fed to typical diabetic and ketotic patients. It was 

 found that the fat was absorbed, that large quantities of it could 

 be fed to these patients without inducing any acidosis, and that 

 the nutrition of such individuals was improved. We are now 

 studying the intermediate metabolism of this fat, and its feeding 

 effect on all types of diabetic and normal individuals. 



116 (1863) 



Hydrogen-ion concentration studies of solutions used for intra- 

 venous medication and clinical investigation. 



By JOHN R. WILLIAMS and MADELEINE SWETT (by invitation). 



[From the Highland Hospital, Rochester, New York.] 



We advance the hypothesis that there is a relationship between 

 the hydrogen-ion concentration of fluids injected intravenously 

 and some of the reactions which follow their use. We base this 

 belief on clinical observations and on extended chemical analyses 

 of fluids commonly used for therapeusis and clinical investigation. 

 We wish to briefly report here some of our more important studies. 

 It should be understood that the hydrogen-ion concentration of 

 normal acid is P H 2; normal alkali P H 14; pure water P H 7; and 

 human blood P H 7.4, and that this latter figure is fixed and cannot 

 be varied without causing serious disaster or death. If a fluid 

 with a much higher or lower P H than that of the blood is intro- 

 duced into the circulation at a rate or in an amount greater than 

 the blood can neutralize or buffer, reactions, as chills, fever and 



