x Scientific Proceedings 
ammonium salts of the strong acids had a greater activating 
effect than those of the weak acids. To this oxalic acid is an 
exception, having little or no effect. 
LIPEMIA. 
By W. R. BLOOR. 
(From the Biochemical Laboratory of Harvard Medical School, Boston.) 
A study was made of the blood lipoids in a case of severe dia- 
betic lipemia where the blood lipoids reached a very high value 
(over 13 per cent). Analyses were made of blood samples of 
which the first was taken 36 hours after the last meal and the 
others at intervals for about 30 days. In the first 20 days of this 
period no fat was eaten and the total food intake did not exceed 
350 calories per day. In the beginning there was marked “dia- 
betic anemia,” the blood corpuscle percentage in the first sample 
being 29 per cent while the normal for this individual was about 
42 per cent. During the first 5 days there was considerable 
acidosis—low CQO, tension in the alveolar air, high trinary am- 
monia, and considerable quantities of acetone bodies in the urine— 
and during this period there was very little absorption of lipoids 
from the blood; in fact, as a result of the disappearance of the 
‘“‘anemia’’ and the accompanying concentration of the plasma 
the lipoid values became higher than at the beginning. The 
acidosis disappeared during the next 5 day period and with its 
disappearance there was a rapid lowering of the blood lipoids— 
about 50 per cent of the total lipoids in the 5 days. Of the lipoids, 
the fat decreased most rapidly, the lecithin next, and the choles- 
terol least. The rate of disappearance of the cholesterol was 
fairly uniform throughout, not being much affected by the pres- 
ence or absence of acidosis. Changes in the fat and lecithin con- 
tent of the blood corpuscles were marked throughout, while the 
cholesterol content remained quite constant, bearing out the earlier 
findings that the blood corpuscles take an active part in the 
metabolism of fat and lecithin but not of cholesterol. During 
the remainder of the period of examination the blood lipoids con- 
tinued to decrease slowly. The addition of 50 to 60 gm. of fat 
to the daily diet and the increase of the diet to over 1,000 calories 
produced only a slight lessening of the rate of decrease. 
