Beer, Acetone, and Diabetes: A Story and a Demonstration The story of a remarkable diagnosis was told in a chemistry class a long time ago. A man in a bar turned to his neighbor and told him to see s, doctor right away. He proceeded to explain that he himself was a physician rand that he had noticed a. collapse in the foam of the other man's beer. From this observation he concluded that the man had untreated diabetes and that there was enough acetone in the exhalation to cause the foam to break. Up to this paint it remained a nice story, it is interesting and entertaining. Theidee of testing it occurred to meonly recently. I bought some beer, poured it to obtain a foam, and sprayed acetone on it with an atomizer (an old perfume bottle did nicely). A momentmv "dent" was observed in the foam. I n order to develop s suitable lecture demonstration, thefollowing set-up was used. About 70 ml of beer were poured into a. 500-ml graduate cylinder. Air was bubbled into a beer through a fritted glass tube. When the cylinder filled with foam, a small amount of acetone was added and the foam collapsed quickly. The experiment can be demonstrated readily to a class. flhe average can of beer contains an excess which may be used for other purposes). This demonstrstion illustrates several points: 1) The importance of observations. 21 The breakine of foams. 3) The occurrence of acetone in untreated diabetes. I am grateful t o Mr. 0.A. Tdiferro for his valuable suggestion.
Volume 49, Number 3, March 1972
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