SUMMARY OF PLAN AND RESTJXT8 OF THE EXPERIMENTS. 



J'iu-ji"s. . subjects, and method. — The purpose of the experiments, so far as the physiological 

 action of alcohol is concerned, was primarily to get light upon the ways by which its potential 



energy is transformed and utilized in the body, but attention was also given to the effects of 

 alcohol upon the digestion of the food taken with it, the proportions of alcohol that were oxidized 

 and escaped oxidation, and its effects upon the metabolism of carbon and nitrogen and the gain 

 and loss of fat and protein in the body. 



The subjects were three young, healthy, active men who were ordinarily engaged in rather 

 light work; one was a laboratory assistant, one a physicist, and one a chemist in the chemical 

 laboratory of Wesleyan University, where the experiments were made. The first, E. O., a 

 Swede by birth, had been accustomed from his youth to drink small quantities of alcoholic 

 beverages; the other two. A. W. S. and J. F. S., had always been abstainers. 



The results of experiments with ordinary diet were compared with those of experiments in 

 which part of the fats and carbohydrates of the ordinary food were replaced by the isodynamic 

 amount, about Ti' grams (2$ ounces) of absolute alcohol, generally in the form of commercial 

 alcohol, though in one experiment brandy and in another whisk}' was used. The amount of alcohol 

 was about as much as would be supplied in a bottle of claret, or 6 ounces of whisky, or 5 ounces 

 of brandy. 



The ordinary diet consisted of meat. milk, bread, cereals, butter, sugar, and the like, with, 

 in some cases, coffee. The quantities were such as had been found to be sufficient, or nearly so. 

 for meeting the demands of the body under the conditions of the experiments, whether of rest or 

 muscular work. The methods of preparation were such as to make the food palatable to the 

 subject. 



During the metabolism experiments proper the subjects were in the chamber of the respira- 

 tion calorimeter, where they remained during periods varying from i to 9 days. The sojourn 

 was made comfortable and the conditions seemed to be normal. Each metabolism experiment 

 or series of experiments in the respiration chamber was preceded by a period during which 

 the subject had essentially the same diet and nearly the same amount of muscular exercise 

 outside the chamber. In these preliminary experiments the amounts, composition, and heats of 

 combustion of the food, feces, and urine were determined. In the metabolism experiments 

 the determinations include besides these the water and carbon dioxide of the incoming and 

 outgoing air current by which the chamber was ventilated, the heat given off from the body, 

 and, in the work experiments, the heat equivalent of the muscular work done. In the alcohol 

 experiments the determinations were made of the small amounts of alcohol excreted by the 

 kidneys, lungs, and skin. 



Accordingly the data of the metabolism experiments show the income and outgo of the 

 body as expressed in terms of (a) nitrogen, carbon, and h\'drogen; (b) water, protein, fats, car- 

 bohydrates, and mineral matters: (c) potential energy of food and unoxidized excreta, and (d) 

 kinetic energy of heat given off from the body and external muscular work performed. The 

 accuracy of the apparatus and method were assured by burning alcohol within the chamber 

 measuring the amounts of carbon dioxide, water, and heat produced. Such tests were made 

 generally between each two experiments or experimental series. Taking the theoretical amounts 

 at 100, the average amounts found were carbon dioxid, 99.6; water, 100.6; heat. 99.9. 



In the so-called "rest" experiments the subject had no more muscular exercise than was 

 involved in dressing and undressing, weighing himself, arranging his folding lied, chair, and table, 



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