Studies in the nervous control of carbohydrate metabolism. I.—The position of the centre

Abstract

The influence of the nervous system over the metabolism of the carbohydrates was demonstrated by Claude Bernard’s famous piqûre experiment (1855) many years before that of hormones, but recently attention has been paid mainly to the latter. As our knowledge of the influence hormones in general has expanded, the possibility that the activities of the glands which produce them are regulated through the nervous system has been considered, and the question arises whether it is indirectly through this control that the nervous system affects carbohydrate metabolism. It was with the object of solving this question that the present research was primarily undertaken. Our original plan was to investigate the nature of the changes in carbohydrate metabolism brought about by piqûre, but we very soon found that this operation, as usually practised, is uncertain in its results and, moreover, that it is impossible to differentiate these results from the disturbances in carbohydrate metabolism which anæsthesia in itself induces. This led us to adopt the method of decerebration rather than piqûre and, by its use, we have succeeded both in localising within fairly narrow limits, the part of the brain which is principally concerned with the nervous control of carbohydrate metabolism and in throwing some light on the nature of the biochemical changes over which this control is exercised. In the present paper, we will first of all give a brief account of the experiments which led us to adopt the decerebration method rather than that of piqûre, and then consider more in detail the results which have enabled us to localise the diabetic centre. In subsequent papers we will deal with the metabolic disturbances resulting from the decerebration and with the modification of these disturbances which occur when the nervous pathways through which the centre exercises its control are interfered with.