106 L. B. WINTER AND W. SMITH.
the curve being possibly produced by delay in the concentration of the
filtrate, any considerable amount of fructose present in the blood would
/ _ / ~CoPPeER VA¥LU
,~~~~~~~~~~~~05RP~~~
DAYS
Fig. 1. Increase of polarimeter reading on successive days.
Normal subjects: I. J. B. S. H. II. G. M. D. III. H. M.
be more likely to be detected, since the specific rotation of fructose is.
so much greater than that of glucose, and still greater than that of the
normal sugar of blood. It might reasonably be expected that with
fructose levo rotations would be obtained.
The normal blood sugar content which we obtain by Bang's old
method is .08 p.c. to .1 p.c. After meals of 100 to 150 grams of glucose
or fructose this rises to -13 or .14 p.c., i.e. the content of the blood
sugar has increased by 50 p.c. The blood was drawn half-an-hour after
the meal. If this sugar had been in the condition as ingested, a marked
alteration of the ratio copper reduction to polarimeter should have been
apparent. This however did not occur. The ratio of copper reducing
power to polarimeter reading was similar to that of normal blood. We
conclude therefore that glucose and fructose enter as, or at any rate are
very rapidly converted into, the form normally present in the blood.
In Fig. 2 the results of three experiments on L. B. W. are shown. Quan-
tities of blood varying from 55 to 100 c.c. were taken, but for purposes
of comparison one copper line is taken in order to emphasise the fact
that the ratio copper value to polarimeter was approximately the same