PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS. 39 



Gigon's main contention is that the basal resting metabolism is 

 extraordinarily constant with the same individual over long periods of 

 time. What is even more striking, he claims that the character of the 

 katabolism as apportioned between protein, fat, and carbohydrate is 

 also constant. Most of the experiments in Basel were made during 

 sleep. Gigon concludes that the gas exchange in sleep is perfectly 

 comparable to that "bei vorsdtzlicher Muskelruhe." For the Basel 

 average nuchtern values he uses for the energy output 22.5 calories 

 per kilogram per 24 hours, for the carbon-dioxide excretion 23.356 

 grams per hour, and for the oxygen consumption 21.05 grams per hour. 



In the protein experiments made in Stockholm, casein was used, 

 hourly doses of 15.56 grams of this food material increasing the carbon- 

 dioxide excretion 4.2 grams per hour (the Stockholm nuchtern value of 

 23.8 grams being used as the basal value). In Basel, with the Jaquet 

 apparatus, the casein was given in 50-gram portions, resulting in an 

 average increase of 5.03 grams carbon dioxide (6.1 per cent) for a 

 period of approximately 3| hours. Subsequently 100, 150, and indeed 

 200 grams casein were given ; in all instances very considerable increases 

 not only of carbon dioxide but of oxygen were noted. The increment 

 for the carbon-dioxide excretion was 15.5, 22, and 26 per cent of the 

 nuchtern value, following 100, 150, and 200 grams of casein respectively. 

 For the oxygen production, 50 grams casein gave 7.4 per cent increase, 

 100 grams gave 14 per cent, 150 grams gave 22.1 per cent, and 200 

 grams gave 27.1 per cent increase. Thus when the size of the portion 

 was varied in the ratio of 1 : 2 : 3 : 4, the carbon-dioxide production 

 increased in the ratio of 1 : 4 : 8 : 12 and the oxygen intake increased 

 in the ratio of 1 : 3 : 6 : 9. It should be pointed out that the experi- 

 ments varied considerably in length and hence a comparison of the 

 various amounts of protein is somewhat uncertain. Gigon contends 

 that the combustion of fat and carbohydrate remains unchanged from 

 the nuchtern value when casein is taken. 



In the Stockholm sugar experiments 46 grams of sugar per hour were 

 given, this amount producing an increase of 6.1 grams per hour in the 

 carbon-dioxide production. On the assumption that the carbon- 

 dioxide excretion can be taken as an index of the metabolism during 

 the dextrose experiments, Gigon computes a metabolism of about 90 

 calories per hour or about 20 calories above the normal. In Basel two 

 experiments were made, one with 100 and one with 50 grams of sugar, 

 the 100 grams giving twice as great an increase in the carbon-dioxide 

 production as the 50 grams. In the 2-hour experiments in which 50 

 grams of dextrose were taken the total heat production was 156 cal- 

 ories, or 6 calories per hour above the nuchtern value. In a 4|-hour 

 experiment with 100 grams dextrose an increase of 30 calories over the 

 nuchtern value was found, or approximately 6 to 7 calories per hour. 

 In support of his contention that the basal metabolism is unaffected by 



