43 8 Muscidar Work and the Respiratory Quotient [April-July 



air passed through the sulfuric acid wash-bottle in the course of a 

 work-experiment usually lasting ten minutes, the conditions were 

 most unfavorable for the complete removal of moisture from the 

 expired air. 



The accuracy of the carbon dioxid determination by the Frese- 

 nius method depends largely on careful regulation of the air current, 

 and every means is employed in that method to increase the surface 

 of contact between the air and the sulfuric acid. In Atwater's 

 respiration calorimeter, likewise, the large jars used for drying the 

 air have a special internal construction that increases and prolongs 

 the absorbing action of the sulfuric acid on the moist air. It is 

 highly improbable that a current of air, especially when saturated 

 with moisture, could be freed from all its water while merely strik- 

 ing a superficial layer of acid at a speed of at least one liter per 

 second. All experience points against that. The results of the 

 carbon dioxid determinations relating to the bicycle rider cannot, 

 therefore, be credited unless it could be shown, against all experience, 

 that the air was actually freed from every trace of moisture by the 

 inefficient arrangement employed. 



To explain his respiratory quotients Chauveau resorted to the 

 hypothesis that fat is transformed intramolecularly to furnish the 

 exhausted muscle with glycogen. To be consistent in the Interpre- 

 tation of their quotients, which in a few tests under severe work 

 exceeded one, Benedict and Cathcart would have to acknowledge 

 that glycogen is apparently transformed into fat, which is then re- 

 converted into glycogen before it is oxidized in the working muscle, 



It is a matter of deep regret that the expectation which the ap- 

 pearance of this monograph inspired, of a definite Solution of a very 

 important problem in metabolism, has not been realized. A work 

 of great excellence in the main from a technical viewpoint, it is 

 probably destined to contribute more towards confusing than clarify- 

 ing the subject of muscular work. 



Chauveau's hypothesis failing to receive corroboration from re- 

 liable experiments, Prof. Zuntz's alternative theory is the only ac- 

 ceptable one at the present time. 



College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York 



