Physiology of the carbohydrates : an epicriticism / by F. W. Pavy.

Date:
1895
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiology of the carbohydrates : an epicriticism / by F. W. Pavy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    suggested, tlie proteid molecule built up by tlie syn- thesising influence of protoplasmic action from carbo- hydrate and nitrogenous matter may be subsequently broken down by ferment action of different kinds, with the liberation it may be of glycogen, it may be of sugar, or it may be of fat. There is certainly nothing inconsistent with carbohydrate entering the proteid molecule as sugar and coming out in another form. Indeed, it is what is considered to take place in the course of the operations of vegetable life. For in- stance, cellulose, starch, inulin, &c., are derived from the sugar of the sap. It is through the instrumentality of protoplasm that the transformation is effected, and the view regarded as rationally to be entertained is that the sugar is first synthesised with a nitrogenous compound — asparagin mainly into proteid, and that from this the carbohydrate is cleaved off in the particular form that is come across. The same kind of reasoning may be applied to the production of fat, the difference simply being that through the influences existing fat instead of carbohydrate is cleaved off from the proteid molecule. There is nothing chemi- cally inconsistent, indeed on the contrary, with the proposition that carbohydate may enter the molecule, and fat be cleaved off. As I suggest in my book, and give grounds for the view, the fat, lactin, and casein of milk may all constitute cleavage products from the proteid or protoplasmic matter of the mammary gland cells. In the section on the glucoside constitu- tion of proteid matter I show that casein differs from albumin, fibrin, &c., in not yielding, under chemical