240 



Papers from the Department of Marine Biology. 



hence the cassiopea used its own substance as a source of energy. 

 Starvation can hardly be considered a pathological process in Cassiopea, 

 however, since it may remain alive for months without food, constantly 



TABLE 16. 



decreasing in weight until it almost disappears before death. Mayer 

 (1914) determined the loss in weight as about 5.6 per cent per day at 

 about 30, although no thermostat was used. If y is the weight at any 

 moment and w is the weight when starvation commenced and n is the 

 number of days of starvation, 



2/ = w(l -0.056)" 



Since I found the diameter to be 2.25 times the cube root of the 

 weight, if the weight were 100 grams, the diameter would be 10.45 cm. 

 The O 2 consumed during one day would be about 0.023 time the square 

 of the diameter times 24 = about 60 c.c. O 2 absorbed and 57 c.c. 

 C0 2 given out. If we assume that protein was burned and that 5.9 

 gram-calories correspond to 1 c.c. C0 2 , the metabolism would equal 

 336 gm. cal. for the day. If we assume that a certain mixture of pro- 

 teins, fats, and carbohydrates was burned and 6 calories correspond to 

 1 c.c. of CO 2 , the metabolism would equal 342 calories pe r day. 



Since I have shown that the metabolism is proportional to the sur- 

 face and Mayer has shown that the loss in weight is proportional to the 

 volume (weight), the composition of the cassiopea must change during 

 starvation. In other words, it loses weight faster than it burns protein 

 (or other organic matter) , and hence the concentration of the protein 

 must increase. Mayer (1914) found the cellular layer did not decrease 

 in thickness during starvation, and Hatai found the percentage of 

 nitrogen to the total body-weight increases during starvation and is 

 also greater in small than in large, well-nourished cassiopeas. There- 

 fore in attempting to calculate the metabolism from the loss in body- 



