532 VITALITY AND EFFICIENCY WITH RESTRICTED DIET. 



RESPIRATORY QUOTIENT. 



With such changes in the dietetic intake as were made in these 

 experiments, changes not only in the total katabolism but likewise in 

 the character of the katabolism would reasonably be expected; hence 

 an analysis of our data for the respiratory exchange should be made 

 with a view to studying the character of the katabohsm. The respira- 

 tory quotient, that is, the ratio between the carbon dioxide excreted 

 and the oxygen consumed, is the best index we have of the character 

 of the katabolism. A high respiratory quotient indicates that a large 

 proportion of carbohydrate is being burned in the body and a low 

 quotient a large proportion of fat. Since the portable respiration 

 apparatus is designed to give an accurate measure of the oxygen con- 

 sumption only, our study of the respiratory quotients of these subjects 

 must depend upon the quotients found in the experiments with the 

 respiratory- valve apparatus; these, however, are not numerous. 

 The respiratory quotients obtained are given in the gaseous-metabolism 

 tables for the individual subjects. (See tables 115 to 127.) 



The respiratory quotient showing the normal basal value prior to 

 the reduction in diet is best obtained from the average respiratory 

 quotients in table 113. This gives an average quotient for the whole 

 squad of 0.80. This normal value is in accord with the value 

 obtained by Benedict, Emmes, Roth, and Smith with the 89 men, 

 and by Carpenter, Emmes, and Hendry with the 17 Harvard Medical 

 School students. An inspection of the respiratory quotients in 

 the several gaseous metabolism tables reveals a tendency for the 

 'quotients to be on the whole somewhat lower with the restricted diet, 

 as values below 0.80 appear more frequently than those above. Indi- 

 vidual instances of high respiratory quotients are, however, frequently 

 noted in connection with the high metabolism found on the days follow- 

 ing the periods of uncontrolled diet on Sundays and during the Thanks- 

 giving and Christmas recesses. T3T)ical illustrations of this are the 

 respiratory quotients for Mon on December 3 and 10, obtained on the 

 Mondays following Sundays with unrestricted diet. The respiratory 

 quotient on December 3 was 0.92 and on December 10 it was 0.89. 

 Likewise on Monday, January 14 (following another unrestricted Sun- 

 day diet) the respiratory quotient was 0.88 as compared with 0.75 on 

 January 10 with controlled diet. On the same Monday (January 14) 

 GkiVs respiratory quotient was 0.87 as compared with 0.79 on January 9. 

 With Pea on the two Mondays, December 3 and 10, the respiratory 

 quotients were 0.86 and 0.93, respectively. A general inspection of the 

 data shows that these high quotients are characteristic of the Monday 

 mornings following the uncontrolled diets of Sunday or after the holi- 

 days. This would imply a storage of carbohydrates as a result of the 

 uncontrolled eating. Aside from these high quotients resulting from 

 the uncontrolled diet, the low-diet quotients show a general uni- 



