The physiology of the carbohydrates : a reply to Dr Pavy's "Epicriticism" / by D. Noël Paton.

  • Paton, Diarmid Noël, 1859-1928.
Date:
1896
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiology of the carbohydrates : a reply to Dr Pavy's "Epicriticism" / by D. Noël Paton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    feeding rats with starch and sugar, I too experimented with rats in 1858 (probably twenty years before Dr Pa ton commenced his medical studies) in relation to the same point,” et seq.! ! Dr Pavy is certainly not quite just in his way of describing our experiments. He contended that carboliydrates are converted into fats in the intestinal epithelium. I do not think that I have misrepresented his theory in my previous article by failing to quote his words in extenso. On January 21, 1895, Dr Gulland and I communicated a paper to the Koyal Society of Edinburgh, “ On the Absorption of Carbo- hydrates by the Intestinal Epithelium: an Experimental Inquiry into Pavy’s theory of the Action of the Epithelium on Carbo- hydrates.” This was published in the Proceedings, 1894-95, p. 347. This paper Dr Pavy heard me communicate to the Physiological Society in February last, and I sent a copy of it to him last July. It contains the records of various experiments made with the object of determining whether the fat observed and figured by him in the intestinal epithelium was really derived from carbo- hydrates. One rabbit was fed on ordinary oats, another on oats deprived of fats by extraction with ether. One rabbit was fed on oats rich in fat, another on turnips poor in fat but rich in carbohydrates. In both cases, while the rabbit fed on fat-containing oats had fat in the epithelium, the other, though perfectly healthy and vigorous, had none. With rats the following experiments were performed:— One was fed on lean horse flesh, one on starch and sugar, one on ox fat. In the two former no fat was present in the cells, in the last there was an abundance. Again, rats were fed on hard-boiled white of egg, starch, and water, and no fat was found in the epithelium, though the rats were healthy and vigorous. We concluded from these experiments— “ 1st, That the fat found in the intestinal epithelium of rabbits fed on oats is derived from the fats of the oats. 2nd, That there is no evidence that carbohydrates are converted to fats by the intestinal epithelium in the course of absorption.” Dr Pavy does not give the title or reference to this paper! and I leave it to the reader to judge after this statement how far he is justified in saying (p. 132), ‘‘Dr Paton has since published some further matter on this subject, but it contains nothing that in reality touches my position,” and in leaving his reader to imagine that my experiments were merely those of feeding rats on starch and sugar. The work of Voit and others has clearly shown that such diets are not “ starvation diets,” but are fully adequate to maintain the healthy life of animals. It appears to me that Dr Pavy’s theory of the action of the intestinal epithelium in stopping and assimilating carbohydrates