230

the diet small amounts of animal foods or liver-extract. The essential principle was later shown to bethe cobalt-containing vitamin B12.25

So far there have been few comparative studies onadults receiving mixed animal and vegetable diets, andpure vegetable diets. BoYD ORR and GILKS 26 comparedthe diets of two African tribes-one meat-eating, theother vegetarian-and found that the meat-eaterswere taller and healthier and had a lower prevalenceof arzaemia than the vegetarians. TAYLOR andCHH]UTTANI 27 found that the hospital-admission ratefor anaemia was twenty-two times higher amongvegetarian Indian soldiers than among their meat-eating comrades. WILLS 28 ascribed kwashiorkor inAfrican infants entirely to deficiency of animal

protein. On the other hand investigations inAmerica 29-32 have indicated that vegetarians, althoughthey may be underweight and below average height,28and their intake may provide less than the recom-mended amount of calories, are not especially proneto ill health or haematological abnormality. HARDINGEand STARE 33 have compared 112 vegetarians and88 meat-eating adolescents and adults, includingpregnant women. The vegetarians were subdivided.into those who took milk and eggs and those who were

- 9pure " vegetarians. The meat-eating adolescentsate significantly more protein than did adolescentsin the two vegetarian groups ; but there were no

biochemical, haematological, or clinical differencesbetween any of the groups, except that the purevegetarians weighed on the average 20 lb. less thanmembers of the other groups. The same workers 34have since reported that the serum-cholesterol levelsin adult vegetarians were lower than those of adultmeat-eaters ; the levels in " pure " vegetarians werelowest of all, although this group partook freely ofvegetable fat. HARDiNGrE and STARE conclude thatthe serum-cholesterol level is more closely correlatedwith the intake of animal than of vegetable fat.The reported differences in the effects of vegetarian

diets on health in America and in Africa and Asia are

probably due to the far greater stresses on the

haemopoietic system in tropical countries amongeconomically poor peoples who are liable to debilitatingdisease. In general, vegetarians in the West are

reasonably well-to-do, taking a close interest in theirnutritional state (HARDINGE and STARE noted thattheir vegetarians were highly " protein-conscious ") ;and they are relatively free from chronic endemicdisease. Discussing the diet of Indian troops,MARRIOTT 35 observed : " Vegetarian or lactovege-tarian diets may be adequate in central India butare not sufficient in areas where men’s red cells are

destroyed by repeated malaria or drained by hook-worms. Such diets result in little or no bodily reservesof haemopoietic materials."25. Hartman, A. M., Dryden, L. P., Cary, C. A. Arch. Biochem.

1949. 23, 165.26. Orr, J. B., Gilks. J. L. Studies in Nutrition : The Physique

and Health of two African Tribes. Spec. Rep. Ser. Med. Res.Coun., Lond.. no. 135. H.M. Stationery Office, 1931.

27. Taylor, G. F., Chhuttani, P. N. Brit. med. J. 1945, i, 800.28. Wills, L. Brit. J. Nutr. 1951, 5, 265.29. Jaffa, M. E. Nutrition Investigations among fruitarians and

the Chinese. U.S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin, no. 107,1901.

30. Foote, R., Eppright, E. S. J. Amer. diet. Ass. 1940, 16, 222.31. Mirone, L. Science, 1950, 111, 673.32. Oldham, H., Shaft, B. B. J. Amer. diet. Ass. 1951. 27, 847.33. Hardinge, M. G., Stare, F. J. J. clin. Nutr. 1954, 2, 73.34. Hardinge, M. G., Stare, F. J. Ibid, p. 83.35. Marriott, H. L. Lancet, 1945, i, 679.

Annotations

SCHIZOPHRENIA AND ADRENOCHROME

MESCALINE and adrenaline have a similar chemicalstructure, and among the many hundreds of substancesintermediate between them, some-without causing ZD

clouding of consciousness, confusion, or gross physio-logical disturbances-produce psychological states

resembling those found in schizophrenia. Dr. AbramHoffer, Dr. Humphrey Osmond, and Dr. John Smythies,lat the Saskatchewan Hospital, ’report the result of a

year’s study of the effects-in trials made on themselvesand other volunteers-of one of these, adrenochrome.In Hoffer’s case the mental changes induced by the drugincluded overactivity, poor judgment, and lack of

insight into the cause of his state of mind. Anothersubject (his wife) developed a condition indistinguishablefrom endogenous depression, lasting 4 days ; she, too,was unable to relate her change of mood to the injection.It is suggested that the prolonged effect in her case wasdue to impaired inactivation of adrenochrome, the resultof an attack of infective hepatitis some years before. InOsmond the drug produced subjective changes of a moreschizoid type : colours and lighting seemed brighter,pictures became’ livelier, and when he closed his eyespatterns of coloured dots appeared. He was unwillingto respond to the questions put to him by his fellowinvestigators, felt cut off from other people, and had nointerest in the experiment. His detachment from otherpeople was such that he did not care whether or not theywould be knocked down by the car in which he wastravelling. He suspected a man of watching him covertly,speculated as to whether he was a plant or a stone-insteadof a person, and had what he described as a

"

glass-wall-other-side-of-the-barrier " feeling. His colleagues reportthat he was negativistic, preoccupied with inanimateobjects, distractable, and anxious. The investigatorsconclude from their experiences that adrenochrome

produces a " model psychosis," lasting at least 24 hours

and sometimes longer, in which the subject quickly losesinsight, and is unable to relate his experiences to theinjection he has received. This is the first time that asubstance which possibly occurs in the human body hasbeen found to be active in this way. How it acta is notyet clear, but it is said to inhibit both aerobic andanaerobic respiration of brain tissue in the Warburgapparatus. This could be partly explained by its

inhibiting the enzyme hexokinase, and hence theentire oxidative system of brain tissue, starting with-glucose. -

Hoffer and his colleagues also gave intravenous

injections of adrenochrome to some epileptic volunteers.In those with electro-encephalograms (E.E.G.) showingdefinite cerebral dysrhythmia, the generalised arrhythmiaincreased greatly within half an hour, and focal activitvbecame more pronounced. In epileptics with a normalE.E.G. adrenochrome brought out the epileptic arrhythmiamore effectively than leptazol. In a schizophrenicpatient with an essentially normal E.E.G., dysrhythmiadeveloped after adrenochrome. They are now usingadrenochrome as a routine to establish the diagnosis ofepilepsy.

1. J. ment. Sci. 1954, 100, 29.

TREATMENT OF RENAL FAILURE WITH ALKALIS

THE metabolic acidosis of chronic renal failure isassociated with an increased plasma level of phosphate,sulphate, and unidentified anions. As in other types ofmetabolic acidosis the replacement of bicarbonate byother anions tends to reduce the plasma pH ; but thistendency is more or less compensated by overbreathing,which lowers the free carbonic acid to an extent which