134 Biochemical Proccedings, Hygienic Congress [Sept. 



with copper, and if the amount were strictly limited, there might be 

 but little fault foiind. But with older vegetables the combination 

 is far less stable and the effects approach those of the inorganic 

 salts. The amounts of copper taken up by the liver and other 

 Organs from inorganic salts may be considerable, and such absorp- 

 tion cannot be held free from danger. The use of these salts serves 

 no real good purpose and should be condemned. 



The paper touched also on the employment of sulphurous oxide 

 and sulphites in certain food Industries. 



The influence of the ingestion of food upon metabolism 



FRANCIS G. BENEDICT 



Three interpretations of the increase in metabolism following 

 the ingestion of food are current : first, the theory in which the 

 mechanical work of the digestive processes plays the most prom- 

 inent röle; second, the less sharply defined theory in which the con- 

 ception of the development of free heat unavailable to the cells is the 

 dominant note, and, finally, the opinion expressed by Friedrich 

 Müller, that there is absorbed out of the food certain substances 

 w'hich are carried by the blood to the cells and there stimulate the 

 cells to a greater metabolic activity. The evidence used for the 

 evaluation of these views in this paper is based almost exclusively 

 upon experiments made upon men in our laboratory. 



It was found that although the ingestion of sodium sulfate 

 produced a powerful peristalsis, no measurable increase in the me- 

 tabolism as measured by the oxygen consumption was noticed. 

 Similarly, the ingestion of large amounts of agar-agar produced 

 very voluminous, bulky stools, but did not increase metabolism 

 measurably. As subsidiary evidence, in unpublished experiments 

 on dogs with deficient pancreatic secretion, it was found that al- 

 though the decreased assimilation of protein and fat resulted in 

 large, bulky, fatty stools, there was not an increase in the carbon 

 dioxide production. The evidence points strongly to the fact that 

 the ingestion of meat by depancreatized dogs, accompanied as it is 

 with large, voluminous, bulky stools, results in absolutely a smaller 

 increase in metabolism than is experienced with the ingestion of 

 meat by normal dogs. 



