DISCUSSION OF RESULTS AND GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 



Ill 



what the comparison. Particularly is this true with subjects having light 

 diabetes with whom an average quotient of 0.76 was obtained in the chair cal- 

 orimeter, while apparently a quotient of 0.70 was found with the respiration 

 apparatus. An examination of the figures shows, however, that the second 

 value depends wholly upon a single experiment with Case K, and hence as an 

 average value is very much to be questioned. The important thing to be 

 emphasized here is the fact that there were no abnormal quotients found, 

 although a single value of 0.64 was found with Case C and one of 0.66 with 

 Case A. In general, however, none of the abnormally low quotients which 

 have frequently been cited by earlier writers were found; at least there was no 

 persistent evidence of an abnormal katabolism which such low quotients 

 would indicate. 



Table 125.- 



-Average respiratory quotients in experiments with diabetics without food, 



1908-1910. 



It should be pointed out again that the respiratory quotient is entirely 

 independent of the total metabolism, and indicates only the character of the 

 metabolism and not the total amount. When the body is subsisting chiefly 

 upon carbohydrates, the respiratory quotient approximates 1. When it is 

 subsisting chiefly upon fat, the respiratory quotient approximates 0.71. The 

 quotients, therefore, here observed with severe diabetes indicate a combustion 

 which is chiefly that of fat. Inasmuch as the relatively small amounts of 

 protein burned tend to raise the quotient, we find the average values slightly 

 above 0.71 rather than slightly below. 



The respiratory quotients for the new series of experiments are given in 

 table 126. These quotients, which are classified as severe cases and moder- 

 ately severe and light cases, indicate again a low respiratory quotient as the 

 characteristic of severe diabetes, the average quotient found with the calori- 



