CHRONIC GALACTEMIA

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to report an instance of prolonged galactosuria associated with disturbance of nutrition and development in which studies on carbohydrates were carried out over a considerable period of time with findings that appear to throw light on the character of the disturbance. Digestion, in preparing the usable carbohydrate of the diet for absorption, converts most of it into three monosaccharides (dextrose, levulose and galactose), and as such it passes into the blood of the portal circulation. The three monosaccharides as such are not utilized with equal facility by the tissues, for while dextrose is burned readily, levulose is used less easily, and galactose is consumed in very small amounts or not at all. However, before reaching the general circulation and becoming available to the tissues of the body, all these materials must pass through the liver, a passage which is supposed to result in the