Until very recently the terms acidosis and acetonuria have been used more or less as synonyms, but at the present time there is a tendency to use the term acidosis in a more general way and in a stricter chemical sense, as designating a condition in which there is a decreased alkaline reserve in the blood as a result of an overproduction or decreased elimination of acid bodies. We are interested in this paper only in that specific form or phase of acidosis which is distinguished from the others by the excessive formation of acetone, diacetic acid and beta-hydroxybutyric acid, or the so-called acetone bodies. It is a specific form of acidosis, in that faulty metabolism of the fats takes place, leading to the formation of these definite substances, while the other forms of acidosis are the result in many instances of very unclear processes.
Without entering on a detailed