NUTRITION LABORATORY. 227 



(12) Undernutrition and its influence on the metabolic plane of steers. Francis G. Bene- 



dict and Ernest G. Ritzman. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. 9, pp. 23-25 (1923). 



A brief presentation of material published in detail in Publication No. 324 

 of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. 



(13) Human metabolism measurements as a laboratory exercise. Francis G. Benedict and 



Cornelia Golay Benedict. Printed in the collected Abstracts of Communications to 

 the Xlth International Physiological Congress, Edinburgh; July 1923. 



A description, with emphasis upon class-room and laboratory usage, of a 

 new respiration apparatus. 



(14) The basal metabolism during pregnancy and the puerperium. Howard F. Root and 



Hester K. Root. Arch. Intern. Med., vol. 32, pp. 411-424 (1923). 



Observations of the basal metabohsm from the fifteenth week of preg- 

 nancy to the eighth week after delivery were made in the case of a primipara 

 in whom pregnancy was uncomplicated by gain of adipose tissue or disease. 

 A steady increase in total calories per 24 hours was observed until 11 days 

 before delivery, when the basal metabolism was 23 per cent greater than that 

 during the fourth month. The gain, expressed as calories per kilogram, was 

 7.6 per cent. Following delivery the basal metabolism fell gradually to a 

 point 9.6 per cent below that observed during the fourth month of preg- 

 nancy. The vital capacity increased steadily from the fifth month onward, 

 with a marked rise in the last month of pregnancy. Standards of basal 

 metabolism for use in practical obstetrics should be developed by the study 

 of normal pregnant women, and a comparison of the basal metabolism of 

 pregnant women should not be made with standards of basal metabohsm for 

 non-pregnant women. 



(15) Alcohol check experiments with portable respiration apparatus. Thorne M. Car- 



penter and Edward L. Fox. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., vol. 189, pp. 551-561 (1923). 



A series of alcohol check experiments was carried out with several types of 

 respiration apparatus designed to measure the absorption of oxygen. A 

 special arrangement of a Pyrex burner and housing, a hand spirometer, and 

 a finely divided burette containing alcohol and raised by a kymograph, was 

 used as a mechanico-chemical testing apparatus. With this combination it 

 was possible to reproduce respiration experiments with the various apparatus 

 of the same order of magnitude of oxygen use and breathing volume as with 

 men. The average of a large number of determinations with the Benedict and 

 CoUins portable apparatus, using ordinary soda-lime, was 104 per cent of 

 theory. An intensive study of the various factors involved in this appa- 

 ratus showed that the 4 per cent error was made up of about 0.5 per cent due 

 to the presence of carbon dioxide in the spirometer bell, 2 per cent due to 

 moisture conditions, and the remainder to erroneous measurement of the 

 average temperature. When Wilson soda-hme (a water-rich product) was 

 used and the volumes calculated as saturated, the average was 100.3 per cent. 

 A series of tests with the Roth modification gave an average of 100.2 per cent. 

 The average of a group of tests with the student respiration apparatus of 

 Benedict and Benedict was 100.2 per cent. 



(16) Why is a child always hungry? Francis G. Benedict, Hygeia, vol. 1, pp. 519-520 



(1923). 



A popular presentation of the food requirements of the child. 



