12 Influence of Inanition on Metabolism. 



also important, record was kept of all the individual tests. In some of the 

 earlier experiments a trial was made first with the right hand, then with the 

 left hand, again with the right, and then with the left, alternately, until five 

 or six tests with each hand had been made. In the later series five tests were 

 made with the right hand and five with the left. The data secured furnish 

 evidence as to the rapidity of the onset of fatigue as affected by inanition. 



Blood examination. Some of the earlier observations 3 indicated noticeable 

 morphological changes in the composition of the blood, and it seemed desirable 

 to obtain from the subject of these experiments such data as was possible. 

 Accordingly, during some of the prolonged fasts, a number of blood exam- 

 inations were made. The blood examination consisted of a study of smears 

 and the determination of hemoglobin and the number of leucocytes and ery- 

 throcytes per cubic millimeter. During the period before fasting and that 

 after the subject left the calorimeter, no special difficulty was experienced in 

 making these examinations. Since, however, in most of the long fasting 

 experiments, the fasting concluded and the experiment with food began while 

 the subject was still inside the respiration chamber, great difficulty was 

 experienced in securing samples of blood for these tests. In order to obtain 

 blood samples during the calorimeter experiments, a device similar to that 

 arranged for the examination of the subject's pulse by the physician was used. 

 This consisted of a thin sheet of rubber, through the center of which a small 

 hole was cut. A thimble was inserted in this hole and the rubber diaphragm 

 fastened to a frame made by removing the glass from an extra outer door to 

 the food compartment. When this frame was closed, it made an air-tight 

 closure. The subject was instructed to open the inner door of the food com- 

 partment, insert his middle finger into the thimble, and then give a sudden 

 thrust. In this manner the finger was accessible to the observer outside of the 

 calorimeter and no air could enter, as the sheet rubber closed tightly about the 

 finger. Obviously this procedure is open to the objection that more or less 

 constriction is placed upon the finger and consequently there may be an 

 abnormality in the blood taken in the sample. As a matter of fact, during the 

 long fast it was extremely difficult to get any blood for the tests and, conse- 

 quently, they are very incomplete. 



chemical measurements. 



The chemical measurements in connection with the metabolism experiments 

 included the chemical analyses of the food, feces, urine, and the respiratory 

 gases. The technique of these examinations has been given in detail elsewhere." 

 It may be briefly referred to here. 



M Tauszk, loc. cit. 



so Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 42 (1905); U. S. Dept. of 

 Agr., Office of Experiment Stations, Buls. 44, 63, 69, 109, 136, and 175. 



