THE INFLUENCE OF UNDERFEEDING AND OF SUB- 



SEQUENT ABUNDANT FEEDING ON THE 



BASAL METABOLISM OF THE DOG 



SERGIUS MORGULIS 



All transformations taking place within the organism, concomi- 

 tant with and resulting from its vital activity, are embraced under 

 one conception of metabolism. Every living being maintaliis its 

 existence by a process of combustion wliich involves two factors — 

 the taking up of oxygen and setting free of carbon dioxide (and 

 water), the amounts of which depend primarily on the degree of 

 activity. The respiratory exchange is thus a measure of the organ- 

 ism's metabolic activity. 



Each individual requires a certain minimum of energy to main- 

 tain its existence and under uniform conditions this minimum 

 amount remains constant. This absolutely indispensable expendi- 

 ture of energy, without which the discharge of the fundamental 

 functions is impossible, is the organism's basal metabolism. 



This basal metabolism being presumably a peculiarity of the 

 organism, I sought to find out how it would be modified by either 

 restricting or greatly increasing the income of combustible matter, 

 The difficulties which one has to overcome in a study of this nature 

 and the methods by which this has been more or less satisfactorily 

 accomplished cannot be discussed in this preliminary note. 



The subject of these experiments was a healthy and very strong 

 Airedale dog, which had been specially trained f or the experimenta- 

 tion. It was found that the most favorable conditions (for this 

 dog) under which to per form respiration experiments were an ex- 

 ternal temperature of about 20-21° C. and a 24 hour fast. From 

 several preliminary experiments it was determined that, in a State 

 of complete restfulness and "nüchtern," this dog consumed 4.76 

 liters of oxygen and expired 3.75 liters of carbon dioxide per hour. 

 The energy equivalent of this respiratory exchange is 39.3 cal. per 

 kilo of body weight. The dog was at this time getting a mixed 



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