Society of Biological Chemists ix 
there would have been any glycosuria, because of the low amount 
of sugar in the blood. 
The present investigation was commenced without knowledge | 
of this latter work and with the idea of deciding whether or not 
acid is a cause of glycosuria or a result of a diabetic condition. 
A great criticism of Elias’ work is that the acid he used was too 
strong, 0.25N HCl. It is quite possible that his results will 
hold good, but they are open to the objection that it might have 
been an indirect action on the pancreas, or a corrosive action on 
the duodenum. 
In the present work, I used 0.1 N HCl, 600 cc. given in 200 ce. 
doses three times a day. This acid is close to the strength nor- 
mally found in the dog’s stomach. This was tried on two dogs. 
One dog was rendered glycosuric by removing seven-eighths of the 
pancreas, and the other highly sensitized by removing six- 
sevenths of the pancreas. The sensitized dog in no case gave 
glycosuria by addition of acid, although he could have been 
rendered highly glycosuric on carbohydrate diet, but was free 
from it on a‘meat diet. The glycosuric dog ran on the average 7 
gm. of sugar a day on meat diet. During the acid period this 
amount was doubled. When an equal amount of sodium car- 
bonate was given, the sugar amount dropped to 0.25 gm. per day. 
While these experiments are too few in number to give any 
definite conclusions, it would seem at the present time that acido- 
sis is a result of a glycosuric condition and that after it has de- 
veloped it acts as a vicious circle and increases the condition. 
This statement is supported by the fact that when a non-glyco- 
suric sensitized dog is fed a carbohydrate diet, he eliminates 25 
em. of sugar per day, and the acid in urine is doubled, and am- 
monia excretion is greatly increased. 
THE ACTION OF AMMONIUM COMPOUNDS ON PTYALIN. 
By ELBERT W. ROCKWOOD. 
(From the Department of Chemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City.) 
Digestion was carried on in a medium neutral to litmus. Both 
salts of inorganic and organic acids were tested. The ammonium 
salts of the inorganic acids increased the activity of the ptyalin 
as did also those of the stronger organic acids. In general the 
