THE DISAPPEARANCE OF DEXTROSE FROM THE BLOOD AFTER INTRAVENOUS INJECTION

1. As has been found by other investigators, when a large amount of dextrose is injected intravenously into a normal dog it disappears from the circulating blood in about 90 minutes after the end of the injection. Varying amounts (an average of 60 per cent) are excreted in the urine. 2. Even in nephrectomized animals the same quantity will leave the circulation in the same length of time as in normal animals. 3. This phenomenon seems to be, at least to a great extent, independent of vital processes, since dextrose, after intravenous injection into dead animals, is found to leave the blood rapidly. 4. The phenomenon is independent of the important abdominal organs, for it also occurs in animals (living or dead) in which the aorta and inferior vena cava have been ligated near the diaphragm, thus abolishing most of the circulation posterior to the diaphragm. 5. The fact that a considerable amount of the sugar passes from the circulation into the surrounding tissues was established by finding an increase in the carbohydrates of the muscle tissue. This was done in the case of the living anterior animals and in the whole and anterior dead animals. In most of these experiments there was also evidence of the formation of polysaccharides in the muscle tissue.