To the Editor.
—I should like to point out an inaccuracy in the final section of the article "Hypoglycemia and Infantile Cataract" in the November 1971 issue of the Archives (86:495-498) by Merin and Crawford.The authors state that the "infantile cataract associated with galactosemia is assumed to be caused by inhibition of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase." This is based on a series of papers by Lerman1 in which evidence is presented purporting to show an inhibitory effect of galactose-1-phosphate on glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. This sugar phosphate is known to accumulate in the tissues of galactosemic patients. However, Korc2 has shown that incubation of normal lens homogenates with galactose-1-phosphate does not affect the activity of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. Kinoshita3 has also been unable to confirm Lerman's observations. Weinberg and Segal,4 studying galactosemic leukocytes, have shown that abnormally high amounts of galactose-1-phosphate do not inhibit glucose metabolism via the hexosemonophosphate