Abstract
A study of the blood chemistry of Dr. Sutherland Simpson's experimental flock has been undertaken as a part of a larger study of the metabolism of thyroidectomized sheep.
The flock consists of thyroidectomized individuals and normal controls. The thyroidectomized sheep were operated on at different ages, and to some of them were later administered thyroxin, thyroid gland or sodium iodide in the course of other experimental work. These administrations were discontinued about 10 months before the beginning of this series of analyses.
Some of the animals were withdrawn from the author's use for shorter or longer periods, and others were used simultaneously for other experimental work involving increased exercise. In the preliminary tests no attempt was made to control the diet of the animals in any manner. Later the uniform practice was adopted of taking the blood after a night of enforced rest in the sheep pens before the sheep were given their morning meal. Greater uniformity of results was then obtained and it became possible to observe certain broad distinctions between the normal and operated groups.
The blood was drawn from the jugular vein directly into tubes containing finely powdered potassium oxalate, which were kept in ice water until used for analyses. Folin and Wu's procedure was employed.
At this time enough determinations are available only for sugar and N. P. N. Sugar was found to range between 0.06 and 0.07 grams per IOO C.C. of blood for the normal animals and between 0.04 and 0.05 for the thyroidectomized ones. (A sharper division was observed when the blood was obtained several hours after the morning meal. The normal animals showed 0.1 −0.12 grams per IOO c.c.; the thyroidectomized group showed 0.06 −0.07 grams per IOO c.c.)
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