MORPHINE HYPERGLYCEMIA IN DOGS WITH EXPERIMENTAL PANCREATIC DEFICIENCY

The subcutaneous injection of 1 or 2 mg. of morphine sulfate per kilo subcutaneously in dogs with a pancreatic deficiency, whose sugar tolerance is still good, produces a rise in the glycemia about four times greater than the same amount of morphine calls forth in normal dogs. As dogs with a pancreatic deficiency due to coagulation or partial resection of the gland may legitimately be considered in a prediabetic state, the inference is warranted that the morphine test may be of value in detecting a weakened carbohydrate metabolism in the human subject. The test could easily and without danger be carried out with the micro methods now available for the quantitative determination of blood sugar. The experimental facts described in this paper give additional corroboration to the view that the response of a normal and of a pathologically altered organism to the same drug in the same dosage may be quantitatively very different.