In the experiments cited by Wood and McLean the animals were injected
with phloridzin in suspension in olive oil. Treatment was begun, as a
rule, seventeen days after inoculation. All treated animals were kept
rigidly on a diet of meat and lard, while the control animals were given
the regular laboratory diet of dry bread and vegetable. From time to
time, at the end of the second or third day period following injections
of the phloridzin, the collected urines were examined for sugar with
Fehling’s solution and were found to give a positive reaction in the
case of the treated animals on the carbohydrate-free diet, while the
urine of the untreated animals as well as a phloridzin solution gave a
negative reaction. The animals under treatment rapidly became emaciated,
the fur roughened, and they appeared to be very ill; a great many died
soon after beginning of the treatment. For the experiments with the
Buffalo rat sarcoma, 324 animals were inoculated, with 90.4 per cent of
“takes.” For the experiments with mouse sarcoma No. 396 mice were
inoculated, with 97.7 per cent positive. Among the mice bearing
spontaneous tumors and Crocker Fund mouse sarcoma No. 180, there were no
cases of absorption of the tumor under treatment. The Buffalo rat
sarcoma showed a much smaller percentage of absorption among the treated
animals than among the controls, 37 per cent as compared with 58.4 per
cent. In the majority of the experiments the growth among the treated
animals was much more vigorous than that among the controls. Considering
the very great variability of growth of the Buffalo rat sarcoma, as well
as the high percentage of cases of spontaneous absorption occurring
constantly, but with a great irregularity in different series of
animals, the futility of using this tumor for therapeutic experiments or
of basing conclusions on such investigations, is at once evident. Any
“cures” obtained in work with the Buffalo rat sarcoma must be ascribed
to spontaneous absorption rather than to the effect of the therapeutic
agent.—_The Journal of the Amer. Med. Asso._