Acid-Base Metabolism

Abstract

In 1906, Meyer 1 observed a rise of temperature in infants following the feeding of casein of human milk added to whey of cow's milk. This observation stimulated further study of the factors inducing fever in infants, when a variety of substances was given either enterally or parenterally. Finkelstein 2 concluded that the fever which accompanied certain cases of severe diarrhea (alimentary intoxication) was not the result of infection but was due to the sugar present in the feeding, since frequently after the withdrawal of lactose from the food, the temperature became normal. Further observations, particularly those of Moro,3 pointed to the fact that salts and protein, especially the latter, were of even greater importance than sugar in the production of fever. Later, the pyrogenic effect of an inadequate water intake was appreciated. Marriott 4 emphasized the great importance of the water deficit in the pathogenesis of "alimentary intoxication" and introduced the term "anhydremia." The other symptoms were considered secondary to an insufficient water supply or increased water loss from the body. Finkelstein 5 observed that fever resulted in about 10 per cent of the cases, when the daily water intake was less than 50 or 60 Gm. per kilogram of body weight. As the result of these experimental observations, he concluded, in a summary of the pathogenesis of alimentary fever, that an increase of the osmotically active constituents of the body fluids frequently played an

Hypertonic Expansion of the Extracellular Fluids

“…There is no doubt that the syndrome has been met with before, and it can, in a way, be said to have been described . Schoental (1929), for example, certainly produced it experimentally in human infants, and perhaps also Stapleton in 1954.…”