STUDIES OF EXPERIMENTAL SCURVY. 
II. THE INFLUENCE OF GRAINS, OTHER THAN OATS, AND 
SPECIFIC CARBOHYDRATES ON THE DEVELOPMENT 
OF SCURVY.* 
By. Ws PITZ, 
(From the Department of Agricultural Chemistry of the University of 
Wisconsin, Madison.) 
(Received for publication, January 29, 1918.) 
In a recent publication from this laboratory McCollum and 
Pitz (1) put forth the theory that scurvy in the euinea pig is not 
the result of a deficiency of any specific protective substance, but 
that it is the result of the absorption of toxic substances arising 
from putrefaction in the cecum due to an undue retention of feces. 
In the present paper further proof is given in substantiation of 
this theory. 
Hull and Rettger (2) showed with white rats and also with 
men fed on a high protein diet that the bacterial flora of the in- 
testine could be changed from a putrefactive flora to an acido- 
philus flora by the ingestion of lactose in the diet. Other car- 
bohydrates as sucrose, dextrose, maltose, dextrin, levulose, and 
galactose, produced some change in the intestinal flora of the rat 
but the change was not nearly so pronounced as in the case of the 
lactose. When lactose was fed with a high protein diet the flora 
was almost completely changed to the acidophilus type with but. 
few or no evidences of putrefactive bacteria. With the other 
carbohydrates used, both types of bacteria were found but the 
number of putrefactive organisms was decreased and the num- 
ber of acidophilus organisms increased as compared with the 
flora of an animal receiving a high protein diet, without the 
addition of a carbohydrate. 
* Published with the permission of the Director of the Wisconsin Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station. 
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THE JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. XXXIII, NO. 3 
