According to St. Hilaire, the male sex is more common in the case
of scantily nourished (and therefore weakly) animals. Giron de
Buzareingues says that the same is sometimes the case with domesticated
mammalia. Martegoute has found that the sheep which bear female
offspring are, on the average, of a heavier weight. Furriers have
remarked that in fruitful regions more furs of female animals are
always to be had than in unfruitful districts. It would follow from
this that better nourishment assists the production of females.
This observation seems, however, to be concordant with the general
practice of farmers, according to which it is usual to keep a greater
number of the females of the domesticated animals, on account of
their utility. The males are kept only in such numbers as may be
absolutely necessary for breeding purposes, or for stronger beasts
of burden. The surplus is, by means of trade, disposed of in other
regions. In consequence, in poor unfruitful districts, the number of
males is pretty nearly the same as in fruitful regions, the actual
requisite number being in both cases about the same. The females, on
the contrary, can be much better kept in fruitful districts, where
there are rich and fertile meadows and better fodder, than in the poor
regions. In the latter the females are consequently rarer.
Wilkens attempted to apply diet to the production of sex in the
domesticated mammalia, and laid down the following principles: The food
must be of influence upon the embryo in the mother’s womb, and the
better nourishment favors the female, the worse the male sex.
We have already mentioned the views of Robin and Born respecting the
influence of food.
Düsing turned his attention to the effect of diet upon horses, with a
view to the development of sex.
The state of nutrition of the parents would have an influence upon the
development of the embryo. In this case, also, the better condition
produced females, the worse males.
According to Düsing, if the mother was well nourished, old semen
operating upon a young ovum would produce a majority of female
offspring. On the other hand, if the mother was insufficiently fed,
young semen operating upon an old ovum would produce a majority of male
individuals.
According to Wappaens, richer or poorer nourishment in years of
different fruitfulness in Sweden has no effect upon the prevalence of
one or the other sex.
Ploss also tried to draw attention to the fact that better food, in
the case of the male as well as of the female parent, could have some
effect. Thus, a balance of the numbers of the two sexes depended upon
the better or worse harvests in different regions. If an excess of one
sex appeared in one year, in consequence of an abundance of food, in
the next year unfavorable circumstances raised the number of the other
sex, and thus a proportion was reached which represented the normal
numbers.
According to Fiquet, female calves are born if the cow is poorly fed.
This diet should last some weeks, but the bull should be abundantly fed
before serving.
According to Landois, food plays a most important part in the
determination of sex amongst insects. If the germ be richly nourished,
females are principally developed. (Landois, ‘_Physiologie_.’)
A great number of different foods and drinks, and also substances
which have direct medical effects, are commonly known or held to
exercise an effect upon the activity of the generative organs, and of
these some are also recommended under medical advice.
Many of the medicinal substances should be carefully avoided. The use
of them may prove deleterious. Cantharides, or various preparations
of them, as well as other substances enumerated under this head
in pharmacology, are distinctly to be eschewed. Not only are they
absolutely incapable of exercising any influence over the sex of the
future offspring, but they can also be distinctly injurious to the
whole organism, or in any case to the urinary and generative organs in
this way, that, after having produced their effect, they occasion a
reaction, which leads to abnormal conditions and inflammation of the
kidneys. No expedient of this kind, no food of any sort, nor drink,
should ever be used, without medical advice. Most of all are these
expedients out of place where any question exists of determining the
sex of offspring.
All these nostrums, as well as the particular kinds of food or drink,
exercise only temporarily a certain influence over the activity of
the sexual organs, exactly as they do in general over the nervous
condition, the mental disposition, humor, etc., which are temporarily
stimulated.
Herewith may be classed the expedient of the injection of semen
recommended by Brown-Sequard, in consequence of which people of
advanced age enjoy a feeling of rejuvenescence. His first experiment
was tried upon himself, and, in spite of his advanced age, he felt
himself quite fresh and young. Originally the injection consisted of a
sort of watery extract made from the testicles of animals. Afterwards
preparations were used which had been more carefully prepared. These
extracts are employed by medical men under the name of spermin or
orchidin.
In a similar way an attempt was made to obtain extracts and pure
preparations from the ovaries of animals (oophorin), which were to be
used in the same manner.
* * * * *
After having given ourselves the trouble to glance through the long
series of different views which have existed concerning the origin of
sex, we are struck with the fact, that scarcely a single objective
observation has been made that could lead to a positive result in the
development of sex in the new-born. Out of all these theories, however,
one hypothesis does seem to be tenable, and to that we shall find
ourselves compelled to give our adhesion here, after having set forth
the detailed explanations which shall presently follow. Now, we were
not led to the recognition of the truth of this teaching by previously
assumed theories. On the contrary, it was after we had completed our
experiments, and had been led by them to positive results, that we
found ourselves compelled, in order to find an explanation of the whole
process, to fall back upon the theory of cross-heredity of sex, and
to place it, by our own experience, upon firmer foundations. It must
be briefly remarked here that the literature of this subject is very
extensive, and to trace out all the literary results would lead us too
far. For which reason I have limited myself to the actual facts.
* * * * *
In order to enter more fully into our theory, it will in the first
place be necessary to turn our attention to the products of excretion
which are eliminated from the bodies of animals, in a more or less
solid, fluid, or gaseous form, as the results of the transformations
of matter which have taken place in the bodies of the animals. The
chemical constituents of the evacuations are either such as it has not
been possible to convert to use in the body, or such as are evacuated
as the final product of the oxidation which has been effected in the
body by the process of combustion.
Of these the former are evacuated from the body as so much inert matter
which has not been affected by the digestive juice, nor altered in any
other way. The latter are given off from the animal’s body in various
states of oxidation in the urine, sweat, or dung, or else in a gaseous
form by the lungs.
A great number of the substances which have been hitherto exactly
examined are secreted by the kidneys and appear in the urine. In this
fluid are found nitrogenous products of secretion, others free from
nitrogen, and inorganic substances.
Amongst the substances free from nitrogen, I found myself prompted
_more particularly to select as an object of my attention the
carbo-hydrate (sugar) found in the urine_. Three groups of closely
connected compounds are reckoned amongst the carbo-hydrates. They
consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, which contain in the molecule
six, or a multiple of six, atoms of carbon. The hydrogen and oxygen are
in the same proportion as in water. (Arnold.)
The three groups are grape-sugar, cane sugar, and cellulose. In the
urine grape-sugar occurs normally among the products of excretion in
inconsiderable quantities. Under exceptional circumstances, in cases
of polyuria, inosite can occur. (H. Voll, Neumeister.) In addition we
find also a carbo-hydrate mentioned by E. Luther that would be of the
character of dextrine, and probably owes its existence to the secretive
activity of the urinary bladder.
Upon boiling the urine with mineral acids we obtain substances
which separate as brown flakes. We denote these “humin-substances”
(_Huminsubstanzen_, Udránsky, Salkowski). In addition to these must be
enumerated animal gum, isomaltose, pentaglycoses, lævo-rotary sugar,
the conjugate glycuronic acids, etc. In conclusion, the occurrence
of milk-sugar must be mentioned, which appears in the last days of
pregnancy. The last-mentioned substances occur in very insignificant
quantities, and are not to be enumerated among the ordinary constituent
parts of the urine.
* * * * *
The carbo-hydrates may be, in many respects, of high interest for the
activity of the organism in its metabolism, as they are found amongst
the products of excretion only as final products of the completed
transformation and using-up of the food.
The excretion of a carbo-hydrate in the urine can be interpreted to
mean that the process of combustion in the organism in question has
not been complete. By some agencies, at present unknown to us, the
efficiency of the organism becomes impaired in such a way that it does
not fully use up all combustible substances.
A number of substances can be excreted from the body which are capable
of a further process of oxidation--for example, until they are
oxidized into carbonic acid and water. The heat which could be hereby
generated is withdrawn from the organism, and must be procured by
fresh nourishment, in order to replace that which has been lost by an
imperfect assimilation of the food.
One substance which occurs in the urine, about which much has been
written by various authors, by physiologists, by medical men, and by
chemists, is of high importance for our inquiry. That is the _sugar
found in normal urine_.
* * * * *
When this substance occurs in the human organism, no matter in how
small a quantity, its presence always suggests the assumption that it
ought not to have been secreted in the form of grape-sugar. For, if
the organism possessed its full efficiency to deal with the necessary
quantity of food taken, then one might also suppose that a substance
such as grape-sugar, be the quantity never so small, would not be
secreted in an unaltered form, but must be further used up, seeing that
the sugar would be decomposed, oxidized, in short, burnt up.
The imperfect performance of an operation of this kind by the organism
is not to be taken for a symptom of pathological processes. In point of
fact, it has been impossible to recognize, in the case of individuals
afflicted with this imperfection, any symptoms of processes of such a
character as would furnish the remotest occasion for the appearance of
disease.
* * * * *
When small quantities of saccharine matter are excreted, derived from
carbo-hydrates which have been swallowed, or, on the other hand,
formed within the human body, say from albuminous principles, it might
be expected that this excretion, occurring repeatedly in different
individuals, ought to be regarded as a normal metabolic process. Such
an occurrence must be interpreted, in fact, in much the same way as
other small anomalies which affect the organism, whose presence leads
to no further consequences.
But our attention must be directed, not to the sugar alone, but to
a number of other so-called reducing substances, because these, as
regards certain reactions, resemble grape-sugar, and have to be
distinguished from it.
* * * * *
In the year 1858 my highly-revered master, E. Brücke, drew attention
to the presence of grape-sugar in normal urine. The foundation of the
theory of normal glycosuria was laid by his obtaining the potassium
compound of sugar (_zuckerkali_) from large quantities of urine. His
theory has been since much elaborated, and a great deal written both
for and against it. When this symptom in the urine reaches a certain
proportion per cent., the condition of the individual must be described
as diseased.
If we apply qualitative chemical tests for sugar, we soon find that
they are disturbed by a number of reducing substances which exist in
the urine, and it is often difficult to determine whether the processes
used to discover the sugar do not produce more reducing substances than
the sugar itself.
Bence-Jones agrees with Brücke’s opinion respecting the presence of
sugar in normal urine, and insists upon its power to rotate the plane
of polarization to the right. More recent authors, Ivanof, Huizinga,
Pavy, Abeles, have stated this fact in different ways, and it yet
remains to be verified. The fact existed, but not without meeting with
contradiction. Maly, Seegen, Friedländer, and many others sought to
oppose the view.
Although in many cases with the commonly used reactions it is
impossible to demonstrate the presence of sugar in samples of urine,
nevertheless, the sugar has been isolated in considerable quantities,
by means of precipitation with acetate of lead and ammonia, and by
subsequent decomposition of the precipitate with sulphuretted hydrogen
(E. Ludwig), after which it has been successfully tested and recognized
by characteristic reactions.
* * * * *
We shall here concern ourselves principally with the appearance or the
increase of the sugar, so far as its presence according to the views
hitherto held is normal.
We are acquainted with a so-called alimentary glycosuria, which is
occasioned by this, that the individual in question, after having eaten
an excessive quantity of sugar, easily recognizes an increase of the
quantity of sugar in the urine. But there are also individuals, who,
though they may have eaten a very large quantity of sugar, cannot
afterwards discover a trace of it in the urine. In these cases
complete combustion has taken place.
But here we must also next direct our attention to the fact that
there are persons who, in the digestion of their food under all
circumstances, excrete sugar, though perhaps in very small quantities.
Others, after eating proportionately much larger quantities, excrete no
perceptible sugar in the urine. Hoppe-Seyler, after having eaten 225
grammes of sugar, could find no trace of it in his urine. (Moritz.)
Frerichs admits exceptions, and relates that in the case of two men he
could always discover sugar in the urine after they had eaten sugar,
although he considered both healthy. Then we find specialists like
Budge, C. Schmidt, Mosler, Schiff, Vogel, C. Ludwig, Voit, etc., who
admit, after their experiments with men and beasts, an artificial
glycosuria, which is normal. Seegen, after feeding dogs with cane
sugar, found inverted sugar (_invertzucker_) in the urine. The sugar
which he was able to identify was of two kinds, one of them turning the
polarization plane to the right, and the other turning it to the left.
Experiments with champagnes, various other wines and sweetmeats, which
contain great quantities of sugar, gave as a regular result perceptible
sugar in the urine of many individuals. As a consequence of greater
quantities being taken, an excessive glycosuria set in. Its duration
depended upon the occasioning causes alone. On their removal, the
quantity of sugar either returned to a minimum or entirely disappeared.
* * * * *
The presence of sugar in normal human urine is therefore possibly in
accordance with all the above-mentioned observations. This fact must be
considered a physiological axiom as regards the constituents of normal
urine. The quantity of sugar contained can be increased by a condition
of alimentary glycosuria. But, when there is no such artificial cause,
and yet the sugar is recognizable, without the ordinary régime of life
being altered, still its presence is no symptom of a pathological
process going on. Even the continuation of the insignificant excretion
of sugar, when it continues for many years, appears to exercise no
influence over the health. _But as one finds many individuals in whose
urine not even the minimum quantity of sugar is discoverable, it seems
not improbable that in a perfectly normal condition of the organism
it is possible for many individuals completely to burn up the whole
of the carbo-hydrates either taken into the organism or formed within
it._ Such persons, in consequence of their metabolism being normal,
are able to carry out the process of combustion to the full, and
their excretions are of such a nature as should represent the normal
processes.
But, if this condition of the excretions cannot be attained in a given
individual in the desired degree, the organism is suffering from an
imperfection that occurs in a normal manner (an excretion of sugar) to
a certain degree and extent, such as the physiological potentialities
of a living organism permit.
In one connection only, in which it afforded me practical assistance
for my observations, this question has not yet been fully elucidated.
Sex had not been taken into consideration during the examination of
the excretion of sugar within normal physiological bounds. Whilst I
was looking through the experiments of the specialists whom I have
mentioned, it struck me that most of the inquiries respecting the
presence of sugar in normal urine had been made in the case of men
alone, and that, so far as regarded the presence of sugar, the urine
of the human female had been little observed, and never quantitatively
and qualitatively compared with that of man. Nicolai Ivanoff, in his
dissertation (Dorpat) on the question of glycosuria in the case of
pregnant women, lying-in women, and suckling women, arrived at the
following final results: “A physiological glycosuria in the case of
the pregnant, or of those who are lying in, has, so far as present
investigations have gone, never been established, and certainly not
to the extent which Blot asserts. Sugar occurs in human urine more
frequently than has been hitherto supposed, but absolutely never _in
constant and increased quantities in that of pregnant and lying-in
women_.”
If, however, it has been in many cases asserted that there was an
increased quantity of sugar in the urine of pregnant and lying-in
women, and that this has been proved, these statements have originated
from mistaking for a previously developed sugar one which has during
the experiments come into existence from the action of alkalies and
acids on an extractive substance which requires further examination.
* * * * *
For the detection of sugar in the urine several methods exist, which
are more or less sensitive.
If we mix a few cubic centimetres of urine with an equal quantity of
10 per cent. solution of caustic potash, and warm a portion of this
in a test-tube, we observe that the fluid in the event of a sensible
quantity of sugar being present, acquires a color varying from dark
yellow to yellowish brown. We can most easily assure ourselves of this
if we warm only the upper part of the fluid contained in the test-tube,
whereupon the upper part of the fluid will appear darker than the rest.
This test will give a distinct result only in presence of a minimum of
1 per cent. of sugar.
A much more sensitive test consists in the reduction of a salt of
bismuth in an alkaline solution of urine sugar. This test, given by
Böttcher, was modified in the following manner by Nylander. Four
grammes of Seignette salts are dissolved in 100 cubic centimetres of
soda lye of the sp. gr. 1.119, and 2 grammes of bismuth subnitrite are
added to the fluid warmed in a water-bath. This solution represents
Nylander’s reagent.
In order to use the test we mix five cubic centimetres of the urine to
be examined (which, if possible, ought not to have a specific gravity
higher than 1.020) with 0.5 cubic centimetre of Nylander’s reagent in
a test-tube. The mixture is now boiled for two minutes. If more than
0.5 per cent. of sugar is present in the urine, the originally white
precipitate of earthy phosphates becomes deep black; with 0.05 per
cent. of sugar it shows a clear, brown color.
If this test is not the most sensitive of all, it provides us with a
process for recognizing sugar in the urine, and not a number of other
reducing substances mixed with it. (Neumeister.)
* * * * *
Amongst the various tests for sugar used in practice, that of Trommer
is one of the most common.
We mix some 5 cubic centimetres of urine with an equal volume of 10 per
cent. solution of potash or soda, and add to the mixture, drop by drop,
a 10 per cent. solution of sulphate of copper, so long as the resulting
hydrated oxide of copper is dissolved by the sugar.
In this way we get, according to the quantity of sugar contained, a
more or less ultramarine-blue fluid. If we warm this, the result, in
consequence of the reducing action, is a reddish-yellow precipitate of
hydrated suboxide of copper which, after a short time, adheres to the
sides of the test-tube, somewhat in the fashion of a mirror.
This test can be applied fairly simply, and it gives good results in
presence of more than 0.5 per cent. of sugar. But at the same time we
cannot use it to detect extremely minute quantities of sugar such as
normally occur in human urine, because the urine, as we have already
remarked, contains a number of substances which reduce alkaline
solutions of copper.
The effect of these substances is sometimes such as to produce the
illusion that from 0.3 to 0.5 per cent. of saccharine matter is
present. (Neumeister.)
In recent times, for qualitative and quantitative investigation of the
grape-sugar, much use has been made of graduated fermentation-tubes.
For this experiment we mix about 10 cubic centimetres of urine with
a small quantity of yeast of ascertained weight, and fill the
fermentation-tube with the mixture. After the lapse of twenty-four
hours, during which the whole is kept in an incubator at a temperature
of 30° centigrade, all the grape-sugar will be completely fermented.
From the gaseous fermentation-products of the grape-sugar, which rise
into the longer branch of the U-tube, and consist of carbonic acid, we
detect the presence of sugar in the urine.
By means of the graduation of the longer branch, we can at once read
off the percentage of the sugar. This test is sensitive enough to
detect 0.05 per cent. of sugar. It is useful first of all to boil
the urine to be tested, in order to remove from it the carbonic acid
contained in solution. It is also advantageous to acidify the urine, so
that the yeast fungus which flourishes more easily in the acid medium
may overpower any gas-producing bacteria, and so avoid a false result.
In 1884, E. Fischer discovered phenylhydrazin, and pointed out the
fact that it might be used as a valuable reagent for the sugar in urine.
This preparation has the characteristic peculiarity of forming
crystalline compounds with aldehydes and ketones. These crystals,
in the cases of the different kinds of sugar, which, as is known,
represent the aldehydes and ketones, respectively, are needle-shaped,
of a yellow color, with difficulty soluble in water, have a high
melting-point, and are called glycosazone.
Jaksch used this property of phenylhydrazin for his phenylhydrazin
test. For this experiment he dilutes the urine with an equal
quantity of distilled water in a test-tube, and adds twice as much
phenylhydrazin hydrochloride as can be taken up on the end of a knife,
and double that quantity of sodium acetate. The mixture is well shaken
together and left from half an hour to an hour in a boiling water-bath.
Then, if the test-tube and its contents be slowly cooled, at the end of
about twelve hours the sediment is found to consist partly of spherical
resinous lumps, and partly of microscopical tuft-shaped crystals.
These crystals are nothing else than glycosazone-compounds. (Moritz.)
In normal urine this reaction is very often observed as distinctly
evident as if we had to do with a urine containing as much as 1 to 2
per cent. of sugar.
In reality besides the extremely minute traces of grape-sugar, a whole
number of aldehydes and ketones are present in urine, which can form
phenylazone.
Amidst all these substances those which, according to the investigations
of Flückiger chiefly interfere with these tests are the glycuronic acid
compounds, as they give crystals of the same form in the course of the
reaction. Flückiger detected these compounds by their property of
rotating the polarization-plane to the left, and reducing alkaline
solutions of copper after long boiling. More accurate investigations
enabled him to identify these substances with acetone compounds.
Moritz recommends the following method of discovering whether we have
to deal with grape-sugar, glycuronic acid compounds, or other (azone)
crystal-forming substances.
Several litres of normal urine are precipitated with lead chloride and
filtered; the filtrate is precipitated with ammonia and again filtered;
the residue on the filter is washed and then dried on a clay slab. It
is after this decomposed with oxalic acid, mixed with acetate of lead
in excess, and the filtrate is deprived of its lead by hydrosulphuric
acid. As a result is obtained a perfectly clear fluid to which the
phenylhydrazin test described above is applied.
The precipitate obtained is filtered off, repeatedly washed with
chloroform and alcohol, several times crystallized, and finally the
melting-point of the needle-shaped crystals, which can be seen with
the naked eye, determined. If sugar is present, the melting-point
of the crystals will be at a temperature of 205° centigrade. If the
melting-point lies below this temperature, we have to do with other
substances (azones).
_Hence it appears that we possess in the phenylhydrazin test, applied
in the manner above described, a certain method of detecting even the
faintest traces of sugar in the urine._
Although hitherto it has been often ascertained that sugar was present
in normal urine, that was demonstrated only by the other methods
with which we have been hitherto acquainted, and not by means of the
phenylhydrazin test in the manner in which we have explained its use.
This seems to have been the reason why different authors have not been
able to speak unanimously on this subject.
* * * * *
It frequently happens that the sugar is present in such quantities that
we are able to observe its power to rotate the plane of polarized light.
For this purpose we generally use Soleil-Ventzke’s penumbra-polarization
apparatus, a description of which will be found in the hand-books on the
subject.
This apparatus suffices to investigate the dextro-rotatory and
lævo-rotatory substances in the urine. With its assistance it is also
possible to determine the quantity of sugar in the urine. In addition
for the determination of the quantity of sugar in the urine a number of
chemical processes can be employed, such, for instance, as Fehling’s
method with Worm-Müller’s modification, Knapp’s method, and various
others.
If we add to normal urine a dilute solution of potassium permanganate
it at once loses its color. From this we perceive that the urine
contains a great quantity of oxidizable or so-called reducing
substances.
It has been already mentioned that Trommer’s test gives positive
results after protracted boiling, even in the case of normal urine,
without any corresponding quantity of grape-sugar being present.
In this case the reducing substances interfere with the test in
consequence of their tendency to become oxidized.
We find a number of them in the urine. Foremost among them are uric
acid, creatinine, and the coloring-matter. Also the substances
mentioned above in the description of the carbo-hydrates have reducing
properties.
* * * * *
Different statements have been made as to the quantity of reducing
substances existing in the urine. According to Flückiger they form
from 0.15 to 0.25 per cent.; according to Salkowski an average of 0.4
per cent., and according to Munk an average of 0.3 per cent.
Moritz found the quantity of reducing substances range between 2.93
and 4.1 grammes per diem in a grown man. His investigations were made
with the collected urine of 24 hours, and were applied to that of men,
women, and children. The result showed that men always excreted a
greater quantity of reducing substances than women of the same age who
used the same food.
The quantity of these substances depends upon the food taken. An
increase is also possible when certain benzoin compounds are taken
into the system. Moritz also found that the ratio of the quantity of
reducing substances to the food was a constant, which is the case also
with the nitrogen evacuated. An increase of the daily excretion of
reducing substances follows the free use of albumen.
* * * * *
If, in the case of an ordinary diet, such as men take in youth, the
body performs its labors without fatigue, it must be assumed that the
several food stuffs have been selected from the classes of albuminous
bodies, carbo-hydrates, fats, and inorganic elements in suitable
portions and are provided in sufficient quantity.
According to the statements of Pettenkofer and Voit the total
metabolism is greater during labor than during rest. The food requisite
for a normal grown man while in a state of rest may be reckoned at
30 units of heat for each kilogramme of weight. In the case of a
full-grown working man, whose weight was 70 kilogrammes, the necessary
food represented about 2,000 units of heat. For a person whom we,
following Voit, will describe as an average working man, the requisite
food supply consists of 118 grammes of albumen, 56 grammes of fat, and
500 grammes of carbo-hydrates, equivalent to 3,055 units of heat gross,
or 2,749 units of heat net.
As a woman is generally smaller than a man, and the weight of her body
also less in comparison with his, and her labor also less than that
of a man, if we compare men and women of the same age, it is obvious
that in her case a less provision of force, and in consequence less
food, under similar circumstances, is necessary than for the man. Voit
assigns to a working woman a food supply of 94 grammes albumen, 45
grammes fat, and 400 grammes carbo-hydrates, which correspond to 2,444
units of heat gross, and 2,200 units of heat net, whilst the whole of
the food taken by an average working man, according to Voit, is fixed
at 118 grammes albumen, 56 grammes fat, 500 grammes carbo-hydrates,
equivalent to 3,035 units of weight gross, and 2,749 units of weight
net.
Many consider that the quantity of albumen is placed too high. For this
reason Munk assigns a lower quantity of albumen for the food. Yet the
numbers which he gives do not vary much from those of Voit.
In youth several very marked differences appear in the metabolism,
and especially in the quantity of carbonic acid given off, and these
differences appear in both sexes. (Tiegerstedt.)
In the case of a male individual from fourteen to nineteen, the
quantity of carbonic acid given off is greater than in the case of
those who are younger or older of the same sex. During the same years,
also, a more rapid increase of weight takes place, and a marked
increase in height. This shows an increased metabolism, which is
occasioned by the greater addition of substance to the body.
In the case of the female individual this increased excretion of
carbonic acid does not occur at the same age. A girl of eleven gives
off nearly the same quantity of carbonic acid as a grown woman.
The quantity of carbonic acid given off by both sexes shows that, at
like ages and under like circumstances, the quantity given off by men
in their younger years is considerably greater than that given off by
women.
When the time of the increase of the body is completed, at the end
of the period of growth, with both sexes there is little difference
between the ingesta and the egesta. The difference also between the
sexes is much less, and in advanced life completely vanishes.
* * * * *
It will be seen from the above brief statements respecting metabolism
in both sexes that a difference is perceptible, and this implies the
possibility of carrying out an attempt to express that difference
numerically. It would lead us too far were we here to set forth all
the consequences connected with these facts in the case of both
sexes, with reference to growth, physical condition, etc. These are
sufficiently known from the data given in other technical works which
treat of the characteristic differences between man and woman in
different ages.
I shall here call attention to one peculiarity only of the human
female, which is this, that the female organism, in consequence of the
less abundant formation of tissue, is on a smaller scale than that of
the male, and yet the amount of sugar given off in the urine is, under
normal circumstances, nearly the same in quantity as in the case of the
male.
Where there is less abundant formation of tissue there must be
evidently less strength. Consequently a weakness in the organism, such
as is present where we find the normal excretion of sugar, will have a
more marked influence upon the work done than a greater weakness of the
same kind would have where the mass of the body was greater and the
matter taken for combustion greater also. In other words, the sugar
excreted in a normal way in the urine of the man does not indicate so
significant a loss of the heat produced by combustion as it indicates
in the case of the woman.
_When, in addition to this, a woman is in the earlier period of her
life, at which time an ovulation takes place regularly every month_,
it is not a matter of indifference whether a good and complete use is
being made or not being made of the matter taken as nourishment.
Also, though the excretion of sugar in insignificant quantities in a
normal way is not detrimental to the whole organism, yet it appears, as
we shall see presently, not to be a matter of indifference as regards
the ovum forming itself and ripening in the human female.
Now, if we take further into consideration the observation which I made
many years ago, that sugar often occurs in the urine of women, and
also in larger quantities than we observe in the case of men, it is
obvious that this symptom ought to arrest our attention. Certainly we
often meet with female urine which shows us clearly that the process
of combustion in the organism in question is being perfectly effected.
Practically in such urine no sugar is detected by the reactions which
have been mentioned above, not even by the phenylhydrazin test. Yet,
in the case of many of these women, although no change has been made
in the diet, sugar is found in the urine temporarily in inconsiderable
quantities shortly before and shortly after menstruation. The methods
of investigation which we have applied gave at these epochs a positive
result.
* * * * *
The appearance of sugar in the urine does not occur only amongst women
of the upper classes, who enjoy a better and varied diet, but also
amongst those of the poorer classes, who are obliged to subsist chiefly
upon vegetable food.
Indeed, in the case of vegetarians who take concentrated albuminous
substances only in the form in which they occur in eggs, and get animal
fat and sugar from milk alone, the urine, as regards the occurrence of
sugar, is of the same character as that of those who do not adhere to
vegetarianism. Women, who, in other climes, are not within the reach of
our investigations, might also be included in the same category so far
as their diet is concerned.
It follows that the individual does not excrete sugar only in
consequence of the character of the diet, but that the _processes
of combustion_ manifest themselves in the results derived from the
digestion of the different nutriments.
Now, an indispensable condition of the ripening of the ovum in the
female organism is that the metabolic process shall be normal. When
these changes are being effected as perfectly as possible, sugar
is entirely absent from the urine. The female individual may have
arranged and chosen her diet from the different groups of food in
any conceivable way, and she may belong to this or that class of the
community, but the metabolic processes--that is to say, the combustion
processes--are, nevertheless, those which deserve most attention in
connection with the development of the ovum.
Ovulation is never in any case altogether independent of the influences
of diet and metabolism. In those cases where the combustion is of such
a kind that unoxidized remains of bodies still capable of producing
heat are found in the urine, the ovum in process of development in the
human female is never so highly developed as in the cases where no
sugar, or at least no recognizable trace of it, can be found in the
urine.
_In the first case we shall have not only a less ripe ovum, but very
likely also a less well-nourished ovum. An ovum of this sort has not
so fully attained to all the characteristics and powers inherent in
its protoplasm, and, in consequence, seems fitted to develop only a
female individual. In such an ovum the several cell-products of the
ovum, which have to develop themselves into the future embryo, will
be arranged for the growth of a female. Not only will female organs
of generation be developed from it, but also all the elements of the
future individual will be feminine._
On the contrary, if in the mother-individual all the substances
developed in, or taken into, the organism _undergo combustion in
such a manner that no sugar is found in the urine, not even in the
smallest quantities, then an ovum can be developed such as is required
to produce a male individual. Out of its protoplasm in the course of
evolution elements form themselves, whence male cells are developed,
which correspond to the development of tissues and forms of the male
individual. Some of the cells--viz.: those which ultimately become the
elements for the continuation of the species, are planned for the male
sex._
It follows from all this that the result depends to a great extent both
upon the diet chosen, and upon whether it has been rightly chosen to
suit the organism, whether it is possible to exert such an influence as
may so support the ovum in its maturation that in its development it
may form itself into a male individual. It must be observed in advance
that such an influence as may be effective for the production of sex
must not be applied to an already fertilized ovum, but must be applied
to an ovum in development before its fertilization.
Indeed, it is even of greater importance to know that the mother
individual has been for a considerable period anterior to the
fertilization of the ovum provided with the requisite food. Care must
also be taken that _after_ conception a similar befitting diet is
continued for the mother, which diet should resemble that previously
provided.
* * * * *
Of what sort must the chosen diet be which can favor the ripening of
the ovum? Always only such a diet as can so modify the process of food
assimilation in the organism that no excretion even of the most minute
quantity of sugar discoverable by the application of the phenylhydrazin
test can be detected.
The quantity of sugar is small, but what has to be taken into
consideration here is not so much the amount of the sugar, as the fact
that this substance is being excreted.
Now, it has been proved by experience that when in an organism
a symptom appears, as the evidence of disease, in the form of a
considerable excretion of sugar in the urine, it is in many cases
possible, by the means of fitting diet, to produce a diminution of
the excretion of sugar, either bringing it down to a small amount or
causing it to disappear altogether.
Investigation of the urine according to recognized methods must
accompany this system of diet, and, under normal circumstances, we
soon meet with the phenomenon, at which we have been aiming--that the
quantity of sugar has diminished to a no longer perceptible amount.
When this has been attained, it may be presumed that, by a further
perseverance with the same diet, the metabolism will be so regulated
that, if no pathological accident supervenes, the excretion of sugar
will cease. In fact, in consequence of an alteration of diet and the
taking of no excessive quantities of starch and sugar, the excretion of
sugar in the urine ceases for a considerable time, and only makes its
reappearance after a long interval.
When, in consequence of having observed the minute normal quantity of
sugar in the urine, my attention was attracted to the fact that the
determination of the future sex was connected with the presence of this
sugar, my endeavors were directed to exercising such an influence over
its presence as might enable me to get rid of it. Experiments with
the most diverse diets gave me in the case of women most remarkable
results. In this way I found women, using an almost exclusively flesh
diet (which was, of course, especially rich in nitrogen), whose
urine showed greater quantities of sugar--according to approximate
estimations--than when they used a diet of carbo-hydrates, that is,
sugar, fatty substances, alcohols, etc. Others, again, showed an
exactly opposite result. In many cases I did not succeed in getting rid
of the normal sugar in the urine; in others it disappeared soon after
the beginning of the treatment. It follows that, in every case where
the question is one of so influencing the sex that a male offspring
may be obtained, the very first thing to be determined is whether
the normal quantity of sugar is present in the woman’s urine or not.
If none can be detected after repeated and painstaking search, and
if reducing substances are plentifully present, we do not require to
arrange the diet, but can recommend immediate impregnation, as every
probability points to a male embryo. But in all cases where the normal
“urine-sugar”--if I may so call it--is present, even if only traces of
it are to be found, it will then be our task, by various alterations
of diet, to discover that one which seems suited to the organism in
such a way that it will occasion the disappearance of every trace of
the “urine-sugar.” In these experiments the remarkable phenomenon
is observable, that the reducing substances which I have already
mentioned, and amongst these especially the lævo-rotatory glycuronic
acid compounds, show alterations in respect of quantity.
* * * * *
In fact, I found that the urine of most women who had male offspring
contained, during the first months of pregnancy, more reducing
substances than the urine of women who had female offspring. It is,
therefore, also necessary that the diet should not only occasion a
disappearance of the normal urine-sugar, but should also produce an
increase of the reducing substances. This end can be accomplished
certainly also by the use of different medicines, such as chloroform,
turpentine, salicylic acid, etc. But, apart from the fact that
medicinal influences are distinctly to be discouraged, these substances
do not seem to produce the same effects as diet. Besides, it is still
a question of what kind these efficient substances are. And another
question is whether they are themselves effective. It will be
sufficient for us to recognize them as a symptom.
It is known that the male sex possesses a distinctly greater amount of
albumen than the female. In age this difference disappears; in youth
it is greater. It might be expected that male offspring would result,
in consequence of a more albuminous diet, by which a greater increment
of albumen would be made possible; the thing, however, is not quite so
simple as this. Investigations in various cases showed me that women
in whom an increased amount of albumen could be detected, but in whom
either sugar was present to a small extent, or, on the other hand, only
very small quantities of reducing substances could be detected, almost
always had female offspring.
In spite of many endeavors to elucidate this phenomenon, I was forced
to have recourse to the symptoms alone, and to hope for the production
of the male sex only from the disappearance of the sugar and the
increase of the reducing substances. Certainly, further investigations
showed that the same diet which was the most favorable to the
production of the condition which I have named (the disappearance of
the sugar from the urine and the simultaneous increase of the reducing
substances), also effected the best albuminous increment in the body.
Key’s statements teach us that male individuals put on more albumen
than females, and that this is especially the case during the period
of growth. Very likely the male embryo also requires a greater amount
of albumen than the female, in the same way as this difference exists
between the boy and girl.
* * * * *
We know as a universal rule that where there is rest there must be
a balance of forces. If the ovum, the accumulator of the balanced
forces in a state of rest, is to divide itself so as to produce in
this way the future individual, some stimulant impulse, some energy
is absolutely necessary to disturb the balance of forces, and to
induce the development of the cells. This impulse may be such a one as
occasions destruction. But it may also be one that gives occasion to
new growth, to tissue formation. (W. Haacke.) We must describe this
impulse as functional, and recognize in it a peculiarity which belongs
to the organic world alone, the vegetable and animal kingdom. Every
movement, every use of an organ, may serve as a stimulant impulse,
and contribute to its development. Thus we find, in the case of
great thinkers and poets, of celebrated generals, etc., a powerfully
developed brain. Oarsmen, gymnasts, and swimmers have far stronger
muscles than men who follow less fatiguing callings. In all these
cases there are impulses leading to increased growth of the organs.
In the growth of the fertilized ovum we have to deal again with a
phenomenon of impulse, a part of which is the property of the ovum
itself, a part, however, also dependent upon external influences. We
call the former autoplastic, the latter xenoplastic impulse. (Haacke.)
It is easy to understand that a purely autoplastic development (_eine
reine Autoplasie_, a pure autoplasia) cannot exist. Out of an ovum
alone, without the agency of new impulses, without the taking up of new
matter, no new individual could develop.
* * * * *
The stomach furnishes the gastric juice. It is stimulated to do so by
the food. The food is digested, undergoes absorption in the intestine,
and becomes lymph. Blood is formed. The blood passes through the
several organs and tissues, nourishes them, and replaces the substances
used up by work. As soon, therefore, as the stomach and intestine,
with the intestinal glands, fail in their functions, all the organs,
which stand in physical relation with them, suffer; because they are
constantly during their work consuming matter, and are now receiving no
fresh supplies. The case of the other juices of the body is the same.
The thyroid glands supply the body with a principle without which a
person cannot be in a normal condition. Similarly the testicles, as
glands, supply the body with a principle the want of which gives a man
distinctly female qualities, as we perceive in the case of eunuchs.
* * * * *
There is no doubt that the males and females of a race of animals
develop out of the same germinal-matter. Its development depends
upon two important factors, the impulse, and the capacity to take up
matter conditioned thereby. By taking up matter the substance of the
newly developed cells is increased, and this in turn prompts them to
repeated division, until at last an organ is developed. The new organ
again furnishes new impulses, and so influences the development of
other organs. The impulses are of themselves physical and chemical.
(Haacke.) In the ovule and the embryo the impulses are what chiefly
bring about new growth. These impulses the ovum receives from the
mother whose product it is. Now, as of the most different impulses now
one and now another comes to the front, the embryo will acquire at this
time rather these qualities, and at that time those. The impulse will
occasion now a greater addition of matter to this organ, and now a
greater addition of matter to that. According to observations made up
to the present time, there is hardly any doubt that the development of
the organs of sex requires an impulse as does the development of all
the other organs. These sex-determining impulses originate, like the
other development-determining influences, from the mother, since it
is she that supplies to the embryo, as agencies of impulse, the juices
derived from the food which she has taken. In addition to these, the
embryo receives also from the mother such products as are required for
the growth that follows the impulse. If the mother gives the child
no material for growth and no impulse, then the child, since it is
dependent upon the mother, must perish. Now, according as a developing
ovum or an embryo either receives the juice, the means of impulse, for
the acquisition of the male sex, or for the acquisition of the female
sex, so will a male or a female result.
* * * * *
Of what kind the means of impulse are, the juices are, which occasion
this I do not know. I can only supply the conditions requisite for
them; I can see only whether they are present. And so I again come
back to this, that we may expect a male individual from the ovum
when the juices are developed which serve as a functional means of
impulse for the male sex. These juices can come into existence in the
organism under the most different circumstances. But they certainly
do come into existence, if we can so feed the mother that we cannot
find in her urine even the faintest trace of sugar, but instead of
it an increased excretion of reducing substances, _accompanied by a
relatively high exchange of nitrogenous substances_. These facts can,
therefore, serve us only as a symptom of processes taking place in the
organism. In consequence our task will be to follow up in the various
cases the conditions of this symptom, _in order that we may try so to
feed the mother individual that she may attain to giving the effective
impulse_; and this we have certainly accomplished by the increased
excretion of the reducing substances and the disappearance of the
normal urine-sugar.
When we have brought a woman into such a condition that she excretes no
sugar, and by the continuation of the same diet keep her permanently
in that condition, the ovule which is being developed in her organism
will develop itself correspondingly. Also with this diet the different
qualities of the organism may not be altogether without influence on
the course of the ovum’s development.
In many cases the quantity of sugar in the urine excreted does not
diminish. The most different kinds of diet may be tried, and yet the
phenylhydrazin test will always show the presence of sugar. Individuals
of this sort exhibit a certain obstinacy in resisting the attempt to
procure an alteration of the metabolism. In such cases no influence has
been exerted over the development of the ovum.
In these experiments which are made with the mother, not only is the
ovum influenced which is being developed for fertilization in the
maternal organism, but it is also possible for the mother herself, in
consequence of the alteration of diet, to experience many changes with
regard to the physical peculiarities of the elements which compose her
body.
The treatment may prove highly beneficial to the mother herself,
so that not ovulation alone is subjected to an alteration, but the
activity of the processes of the tissues of the other organs of the
body may be also simultaneously in some way changed. And here may come
into consideration many other factors which may produce a particular
fitness for procreation and for the development of the ovum, and, if
they once make themselves felt, may be of the greatest advantage to the
mother.
The formation of the insignificant quantity of sugar in the body goes
on of itself regularly, without it being possible to perceive any
consequent striking alterations in the organism. The manner in which
sugar is formed in the body under normal conditions has in recent years
been thus explained.
The sugar contained in the blood in healthy persons is reckoned as not
higher than about 0.15 per cent. In those who suffer from diabetes it
may rise to 0.44 per cent. If sugar is present in the blood, that it
passes thence into the urine can be easily explained, seeing that the
excreted products of decomposition from the blood pass into the urine.
Thus the sugar results from a portion of the food which is transformed
into sugar, and so passes into the portal vein. (Strümpell.)
There exists also in the liver and muscles a non-nitrogenous substance,
glycogen, which is detected also in other organs. This glycogen
probably arises partly from the carbo-hydrates of the food, but
certainly from the albuminous substances taken with the food, which,
when broken up, separate into nitrogenous products and glycogen.
When the glycogen is once formed, we may regard it as an intermediate
substance which is changed into sugar, probably by a saccharine
fermentation, and then can reach the blood. How glycogen is transformed
into sugar within the organism is unknown. Normally occurring sugar
results from glycogen.