Abstract
In the hope of finding a more favorable subject than the depancreatized animal for study of the influence of insulin administered orally, twelve dogs were used after the establishment of the typical D:N ratio of Lusk. Insulin produced in the laboratory by the amyl alcohol method, 1 administered subcutaneously, caused not only a sharp decline in the excretion of sugar (and nitrogen), but also a rise in respiratory quotient from diabetic level (0.69) to as high as 0.85. Sugar was administered by stomach both in control and in insulin periods. In several instances after a dose of 1 R. U. per two kilos dog the R. Q. rose within the first two hours only to 0.77 or 0.78 and immediately dropped back to diabetic level. The effect on the excretion of nitrogen was sometimes parallel with and in a few instances greater than the effect on the excretion of sugar.
Insulin was given orally in several different combinations: in cod-liver oil emulsion (no effect); in oleic acid suspension (no effect); in blood serum (some effect). The best results (rise in R. Q. to 0.77 or 0.79) were obtained after the use of 1 R. U. per kilo in the form of an enteric coated tablet containing insulin and malic acid. 2 The effect on the excretion of sugar was not so marked even with this tablet as after subcutaneous administration.
There is evidence of retention of sugar as well as of combustion in some of the experiments both after subcutaneous and after oral administration. Whether the effect on combustion is direct or indirect these experiments do not permit us to say.
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