Studies on the Theory of Diabetes

When in any case of pancreas or phlorhizin diabetes any sugar, such as galactose, levulose, mannose, etc., is given under conditions so selected that the sugar almost wholly escapes oxidation, such sugar may still be fully transformed into d-glucose. This phenomenon serves to demarcate two distinct types of sugar reaction in the body: the destructive and the transformative. It is only the former of these which disappears in diabetes. In a study of the fundamental chemical nature of diabetes it is important to discriminate between these and to ascertain, if possible, the chemical nature of each and the laws which govern them. Some light is thrown on the subject by a consideration of certain purely chemical properties of sugars. Sugars in alkaline solutions in vitro manifest the same two types of reaction, and in this field the phenomena have been extensively investigated and illuminated. It has long been known that when a solution of any monosaccharose, such as d-glucose, is alkalinized, the rotatory power of the solution falls and finally disappears, the solution then containing a mixture of hexoses in a state of dynamic chemical equilibrium as shown by Lobry de Bruyn and van Ekenstein.l Knowledge of the probable number and character of the substances participating in such an equilibrium has been extended by Nef.2 If the conditions of the experiment are suitable (very dilute alkali), there need be no browning of the solution nor any