108 



METABOLISM IN SEVERE DIABETES. 



The agreement between the results found with the bed calorimeter and 

 those with the respiration apparatus is obvious, the greater increase noted with 

 the chair calorimeter being explained in part by the fact that there is an actual 

 increase in the metabolism due to the sitting up in the chair, and in part to the 

 fact that the abnormally high values found with Cases I and J were not accom- 

 panied by similar experiments with either the bed calorimeter or the respiration 

 apparatus. From this earlier work, therefore, one can conclude that for sub- 

 jects with severe diabetes, lying quietly, without food, there is approximately a 

 consumption of 4.22 c.c. of oxygen per minute per kilogram of body-weight. 



Table 122. Oxygen absorbed per kilogram of body-weight per minute in experiments with 



diabetics without food, 1908-1910. 



The later experiments were almost exclusively made with either the bed 

 calorimeter or the respiration apparatus. The results obtained in these experi- 

 ments are given in table 123 herewith. As was pointed out in our discussion 

 of the carbon-dioxide consumption, the agreement between the average results 

 found with the bed calorimeter and the respiration apparatus is not what 

 would be expected, because the abnormally high values of subjects I and N 

 as determined in the bed calorimeter are not accompanied by similar obser- 

 vations on the same subject with the respiration apparatus. Likewise, the 

 recent experiments differ from the earlier investigations chiefly in the fact that 

 with practically no subject were experiments made with both the bed calo- 

 rimeter and the respiration apparatus; therefore the comparison is obviously 

 not as simple as it was in the earlier report. If we consider the average of the 

 results found with the cases of severe diabetes in the bed calorimeter and on the 

 respiration apparatus as representing the truest average, we may state that 

 with these subjects lying quietly at rest without food, 4.73 c.c. of oxygen are 



