ggg EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



" Four lbs. coffee, 36 cts. ; 300 plantains, $1.50 ; 20 lbs. brown sugar, 60 cts. ; 

 2 gal. sirup, 40 cts.; 3 lbs. lard (poor), 60 cts.; 150 stalks sugar cane. 75 cts.; 

 i lb. smoked herring, 50 cts. ; vegetables, 60 cts." 



[In a communication supplying additional data tbe author states that legumes 

 (beans and peas) are an important part of the diet and that natives in the 

 interior and away from market use eggs and chickens and occasionally game 

 birds.] 



The compensation and summation of functional activities of the body, 

 M. RUBNER iSitzl)cr. K. Preiiss. Akad. Wlss., 1910, XVI, pp. 316-324; abs. in 

 ZentU. Physiol., 24 (1910), No. 16, pp. 762-764).— As the author points out, 

 the total activity of a living body consists of the sum of the activities of its 

 organs. All of the organs can not function at their highest capacity at a given 

 time since neither the blood supply nor the respiration would suffice for such ac- 

 tivities. Therefore, it follows that increased activity of one organ means a 

 certain amount of inactivity on the part of other organs, as is evident from the 

 distribution of blood in different parts of the body when muscular or mental 

 work is performed. 



It is not always possible to reduce the activity of any part of the body to 

 its components, since the circulation of the blood in all the different parts of 

 the body can not be quantitatively measured. However, from a study of the 

 phenomena of metabolism it is possible to determine some of the ways in which 

 different processes in the body interact upon each other. 



It is known that, in the case of warm-blooded animals, taking food increases 

 the energy metabolized in comparison with that observed in fasting, and that 

 the increase is determined by the kind and quantity of food. The greatest in- 

 crease is observed when nitrogenous foods are taken and the smallest with 

 carbohydrates. Such differences, however, disappear if the temperature of 

 the subject is lowered. The higher the temperature of the surrounding air 

 the smaller the amount required in fasting for the increase, while in the case 

 of an animal not fasting, an increase in the temperature exercises no special 

 effect upon energy metabolism. Muscular work influences heat production in 

 a way similar to that noted when food is taken, and so the question arises as 

 to whether muscular work is also to be regarded as a compensating function. 

 The increased heat production noted when protein food is taken depends upon 

 the cleavage of nitrogenous foodstuffs, which can not be used as sources of 

 energy in the body. Whether this is the case when muscular work is performed 

 simultaneously, must be determined by experiment, since taking food and mus- 

 cular work can each influence the distribution of the blood in the body. 



Respiration experiments were accordingly undertaken with a man at work 

 and are briefly reported, the different experimental periods including fasting, 

 a carbohydrate diet, and a protein diet. The amount of work performed was 

 measured with an ergostat. When food was taken more energy was metabolized 

 than when the subject fasted, the largest increase being noted when work 

 was performed on a proteid diet, since protein is not a source of muscular 

 energy as is sugar. According to theory, if the taking of food and muscular 

 work are not compensative but simply additive, the increased energy produc- 

 tion due to work would be the same in both the dietary conditions noted, not- 

 withstanding the fact that carbohydrate food of itself causes a much smaller 

 energy metabolism than proteid food. Sucli a condition was observed in the 

 experiments, so it may be concluded that the dynamic increase of energy 

 metabolism and the production of muscular work are functions which must 

 be considered as absolutely unrelated. 



Heat regulation was also studied in connection with the experiments re- 

 ported. In the case of the sugar diet, the increased heat produced was elimi- 



