192 REPORTS OF* INVESTIGATIONS AND PROJECTS. 



(4) Mercurial poisoning of men in a respiration chamber. Thorne M. Carpenter and 



Francis G. Benedict. Amer. Jour. Physiol. 24, p. 187. 1909. 



In the spring and fall of 1905 a number of men became ill inside the respi- 

 ration chamber. The experiments were usually planned for some definite 

 purpose, and hence the observations on the illness were only incidental. A 

 few experiments, however, were designed specifically to study the cause of 

 the disturbance, and after a lengthy series of observations it was traced to the 

 toxic influence of two mercury valves used in a ventilating air-current. With 

 the removal of these valves all toxic symptoms disappeared, and they have 

 not recurred after a lapse of two years. The symptoms were unlike any 

 recorded at that time for mercurial poisoning, and hence rendered the dis- 

 cernment of the cause of the trouble rather obscure. There was a persistent 

 hacking cough, accompanied by a marked temperature rise and respiratory 

 disturbance. None of the other symptoms ordinarily associated with mercu- 

 rial poisoning appeared. 



(5) Preliminary observations on metabolism during fever. Thorne M. Carpenter and 



Francis G. Benedict. Amer. Jour. Physiol. 24, p. 203. 1909. 



The febrile temperature noted in many of the experiments in which mer- 

 curial poisoning was observed gave opportunity for making a number of 

 observations on metabolism during fever. These observations included the 

 carbonic-acid and water elimination, the oxygen consumption, and the heat 

 elimination and production. While distinctly preliminary, and with but im- 

 perfect control experiments, the results point to a positive increase in the 

 total metabolism during the febrile period. 



(6) Automatic pipette for caustic-soda solution. Francis G. Benedict. Jour. Amer. 



Chem. Soc. (31), vi, p. 652. 1909. 



This apparatus was introduced to minimize the handling of the rather large 

 amounts of strong caustic-soda solution used in the Kjeldahl determination of 

 nitrogen. It permits of the automatic delivery of any desired quantity of the 

 liquid. The apparatus is constructed upon the principle of the displacement 

 of a volume of liquid by a glass vessel filled with lead, allowing the dis- 

 placed liquid to overflow through a side aperture. The apparatus has proven 

 very satisfactory, and is in constant use. 



(7) An apparatus for studying the respiratory exchange. Francis G. Benedict. Amer. 



Jour. Physiol. 24, p. 345. 1909. 



This paper is introduced with an extended discussion of the significance of 

 the respiratory quotient, the ratio between the volume of carbon dioxide 

 exhaled and the volume of oxygen absorbed. The apparatus herein described 

 consists of a modified form of the respiration apparatus in use with the large 

 respiration calorimeters in this laboratory. 



The subject, lying upon a cot in a comfortable position, breathes through 

 two specially constructed nose-pieces into an air-pipe through which passes a 

 rapidly-moving current of air free from carbon dioxide, with a humidity of 

 about 65 per cent and with an approximately normal percentage of oxygen. 

 This ventilating current of air is maintained by a small rotary blower, and as 

 the expired air passes along the tube it is successively passed through sul- 

 phuric acid to remove the moisture from the lungs, through soda-lime or 

 potash-lime to remove the carbon dioxide, and through a sulphuric-acid con- 



