Blood Sugar Studies. 



409 



In the diabetic, on the other hand, the glycogenic function is im- 

 paired, it does not respond to the stimulus, and the blood sugar 

 continues to rise as long as glucose is absorbed from the intestine. 



Staub 1 in Spiro's laboratory, has offered a similar suggestion, 

 the gist of which is that the presence of abundant carbohydrate 

 food in the body stimulates the mechanism which is concerned 

 with carbohydrate metabolism. 



In a more recent paper Folin and Berglund 2 have found the 

 hypothesis of McLean and de Wesselow to be superfluous. To 

 them not glycogen formation but simply absorption into the tis- 

 sues is entirely adequate to account for the fact that sugar does 

 not accumulate in the blood after the ingestion of glucose or other 

 sugars. In arriving at this conclusion they were apparently 

 greatly influenced by their blood-sugar findings after feeding fruc- 

 tose and galactose to normal individuals. The latter is known 

 to be a poor glycogen former, hence, if glycogen-formation is an 

 important factor in reducing or preventing alimentary hyper- 

 glycemia, then galactose should be much more effective than glucose 

 in raising the blood-sugar level. As a matter of fact, however, they 

 found absolutely no rise after feeding galactose, nor after fructose 

 and maltose. They make no mention of data in the literature 

 contrary to their findings in this respect. 1, 2> 4 - 5 



The purpose of this paper is to report in a very preliminary 

 manner some data which favor the hypothesis of McLean. We 

 think that our results with fructose, galactose and maltose (Tables 

 I and II) remove the ground for Folin and Berglund's objection to 

 McLean's interpretation. In four tests with Kahlbaum's purest 

 galactose marked increases in blood-sugar concentration were 

 found, in two cases extraordinary hyperglycemia developed, reach- 

 ing a maximum in about two hours, which corresponds in time 

 with the maximum glycosuria found by Folin and Berglund. Our 

 maltose curves agree with the findings of Field, 3 McLean and de 

 Wesselow 4 and Leire. 5 With fructose both Folin and Berglund 

 and McLean and de Wesselow found no rise in blood-sugar level. 



1 Staub, H., Biochem. Zeits., 1921, cxviii, 93. 



3 Folin, O. and Berglund, H., Jour. Biol. Chem., 1922, li, 213. 



3 Field, C. W., Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol, and Med., 1919, xvii, 29. 



4 Loc. cit., p. 408. 



6 Bang, I., "Der Blutzucker," p. 63. 



