FOODS — HUMAN NUTRITION. 563 



Food as body fuel, H. P. Armsby [Pennsylvania Sta. Bui. 126 {1913), pp. 

 59-68). — The author discusses the animal as a prime motor, energy transfor- 

 mations in the body, and the origin of animal heat, and briefly summarizes his 

 investigations and the work of others with reference to these questions. 



The results presented, he concludes, may be taken "as demonstrating that 

 the animal heat arises exclusively from the combustions in the body, but they 

 have a much broader significance. They show that the transformations of 

 chemical energy into heat and work in the animal body take place according 

 to the same general laws and with the same equivalencies as in our artificial 

 motors and in lifeless matter generally. The great law of the conservation of 

 energy rules in the animal mechanism, whether in man, carnivora, or her- 

 bivora, just as in the engine. The body neither manufactures nor destroys 

 energy. All that it gives out it gets from its food and all that is supplied in 

 its food is sooner or later recovered in some form. We are fully justified, 

 therefore, in speaking of the food as body fuel, and in our studies of its utiliza- 

 tion we may be confident that any food energy which does not reappear in the 

 form of heat or work has not been lost but has been stored up in the body as 

 the chemical energy of meat, fat, etc., which may later serve to supply food 

 energy to the human body when consumed as food by man." 



The influence of nutrition on the gaseous metabolism of cold-blooded 

 animals, B. Elsas (ZtscJir. Biol., 62 {1913), No. 1-2, pp. 1-31; abs. in Jour. 

 Chan. Soc. [London], 104 {1913), No. 612, I, pp. 1126, 1127).— In the experi- 

 ments here reported the inanition metabolism of laboratory animals (frogs) 

 was first found by means of a modified Regnault-Reiset apparatus. In the later 

 experiments amounts of fat and of protein equivalent to the inanition metabo- 

 lism were fed and the effects of the respective diets noted. 



Feeding fat did not increase the metabolism, but feeding protein raised it 

 from 17 to 40 per cent. In the author's opinion, the work supports Rubner's 

 theory of the specific dynamic action of different foodstuffs. 



Note on the relationship between barometric pressure and carbon dioxid 

 excretion in man, J. A. Harris {Biochem. Bui., 2 {1913), No. 8, pp. 530, 531). — 

 The formulae here given were worked out from Higley's data (E. S. R., 29, p. 

 569) regarding the product moment correlation method as applied to the ques- 

 tion of barometric pressure on carbon dioxid excretion. 



Chemical notes on ventilation, P. N. Evans {Proc. Ind. Acad. 8ci., 1911, pp. 

 55-60; Gsndhts. Ingen., 36 {1913), No. 36, pp. 669-671; abs. in Zentbl. Biochem. 

 u. Biophys., 15 {1913), No. 20-21, p. 8^8).— The author summarizes the results 

 of his experiments as follows: 



"It has been shown that under all ordinary conditions of ventilation the 

 products of respiration move upwards; that this upward movement, by which 

 the harmful products are removed from the level of respiration, is assisted by 

 a low room temperature and by dryness of the air of the room ; also, that the 

 fresh air has the same density as expired air (saturated with moisture and 

 at body temperature) at 33** C. or 91° F. if the fresh air is saturated with 

 moisture, at 39° C. or 102° F. if perfectly dry, and at temperatures interme- 

 diate between these with different degrees of moistness." 



An ergograph for the lower extremities, C. Tigerstedt {Skand. Arch. 

 Physiol., 39 {1913), No. 4-6, pp. 299-301, figs. 3).— In the apparatus here 

 described the subject, seated on a bicycle saddle adjusted to a suitable position, 

 presses with his foot upon one end of a lever, the other end of which is 

 weighted. The distance which the weighted end rises is recorded by a needle 

 attached at the fulcrum of the lever. 



