470 I XFLUENCE OF INANITION ON METABOLISM. 



Knowing that the fat in the body does not hold material amounts of water, 

 it is hardly conceivable that the excretion of preformed water should have any 

 relation to the fat katabolized and an inspection of the figures here given shows 

 that no such relation can be observed. 



With the enormous amounts of drinking-water consumed bv some of these 

 subjects, it may appear that the loss of preformed water was in a measure 

 influenced by the quantities of drinking-water consumed. Here again com- 

 parisons fail to show any clear relationship. For example, it might be expected 

 that with large amounts of drinking-water, the body would be supercharged 

 with it and thus a minimum loss of preformed water occur, and yet in some 

 of the experiments, where the largest loss occurred, the subjects consumed very 

 liberal amounts of drinking-water. 



Although no relation can be clearly seen between the quantities of protein, 

 fat, and glycogen katabolized and the loss of preformed water, there is one 

 factor which has previously been treated in this report, which apparently has 

 some relation to this loss. That factor is the ratio between the amount of 

 water in urine and the water in drink, discussed on page 348. This ratio 

 has been given in column e of table 193. Comparing the ratios in this column 

 with the losses of preformed water, it is noted that when there is a high ratio, 

 there is a large loss of preformed water. This is to be expected since the 

 quantities of water of respiration and perspiration remain relatively constant 

 throughout the fasts. 



An examination of the figures for the longer fasting experiments shows that, 

 in general, the loss of preformed water becomes less and less as the fast pro- 

 gresses, and from a comparison of the amounts of water lost with the water 

 of flesh katabolized in the case of experiment No. 75, it might appear that 

 during the earlier days of fasting, there is a very considerable loss of pre- 

 formed water to the body other than that of the protein katabolized, and that 

 as the fast progresses this extra loss of water diminishes until, on the sixth 

 and seventh days of fasting, the water of flesh katabolized corresponds to the 

 preformed water lost. Apparently, at the beginning of the fast there is no 

 connection whatever between the preformed water lost and the other factors 

 of katabolism. It seems, therefore, that the body must have a large residuum 

 of water other than that in muscle and glands. In the muscles, the ratio of 

 the organic matter to the water is presumed to be very fixed. Indeed, until 

 recently I5r it was believed to be impossible to separate the juice from fresh 

 muscle material by even the highest pressures. 



Evidently there is a large amount of preformed water in the body aside 

 from that in the protein of flesh or gland. It must be borne in mind, how- 

 ever, that these conclusions are drawn from only one experiment, although it 



157 O. v. Piirth, Beitrage zur chem. Physiol, u. Pathol. (1903), 3, p. 543; Schmidt- 

 Nielson, Beitrage zur chem. Physiol, u. Pathol. (1903), 4, p. 182. 



