Three lectures on the pathology and treatment of diabetes mellitus viewed by the light of present-day knowledge / by F.W. Pavy.

  • Frederick William Pavy
Date:
1908
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Three lectures on the pathology and treatment of diabetes mellitus viewed by the light of present-day knowledge / by F.W. Pavy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    &c., and of fats in the vegetable kingdom, and of glycogen and fats in the animal kingdom, as the issue of indisputable physiological procedures. It is through bioplasmic agency that the phenomenon is brought about. Either carbohydrate or fat, entering the bioplasmic complex and not being oxidised or consumed, will not remain fixed there, but be dissociated or thrown oft' in one form or another, according to the potential conditions existing. Carbohydrate may enter and be thrown off as carbohydrate, and fat as fat; or, it may be, that carbohydrate may be taken on and fat cleaved off, or fat enter and carbohydrate be cleaved off. Illustrations demonstrative of these actions are readily obtainable from the vegetable kingdom. With respect to the production of fat from carbohydrate, I may cite a passage from Sachs, quoted in my '' Physiology of the Carbo- hydrates (p. 247) : Before maturity such [oily] seeds con- tain no fat, but only starch and sugar. Such unripe seeds (e.g. of Poeonia) may be detached from the mother plant, and allowed to lie in moist air with the result that the starch disappears and is replaced by fatty oil. With respect to the production of carbohydrate from fat, the growth of the oily seed suffices to aft'ord a demonstration. From the oily seed placed in contact with water, a young plant springs, just as happens with its starchy congener, the fat obviously constituting the source of the cellulose that comes into existence. Concordantly, there cannot be any doubt about fat emanating from carbohydrate as a metabolic procedure in the animal kingdom, but concerning the production of carbo- hydrate from fat, I do not consider that any point of evidence is yet before us that can be definitely said to settle the question. I submit that, in the dissociation process of which I have been speaking, CARBOHYDRATE AND FAT STAND UPON IDENTICALLY THE SAME GROUND. The matter is very simple and intelligible. Both form an. integral part of bioplasm. If in excess, arising from supply, or from production within as in the case of fat from carbo- hydrate, of the consumption taking place, they become dissociated as storage material. The dissociation seems to play a balancing role. What is not used is for the time thrown off. This is well seen in