650 



THE RESPIRATION AND 



[PT. Ill 



of raising fertilisation membranes gave exactly similar results in the 

 calorimeter. If the fertilisation membrane, however, was artificially 

 produced in various ways, the heat production of the eggs might be 

 raised considerably above the normal. The spermatozoa, which were 

 also studied by Meyerhof, had an extremely small heat-production 

 compared to that of the eggs; thus approximately 10 milliards of 

 sperms gave off 4-6 cal. per hour when perfectly fresh, but after 

 3 hours in sea water this value had fallen to 3-1 cal. per hour. 



loo' 30' 2,00'30' 3.00'30' f^,00' 30' 5,00' 30' 6.00' 30' 7,00' 30' 6,00' 30' 9,00' 30' 70,0(f30' 71,0& 30' 12,OCf30' 



Hours 



Observed figures. Corrected results. 



Fig. 1 1 6. 



The determination of the heat-production of the eggs was in itself 

 very interesting, but Meyerhof went further, and compared it with 

 the oxygen uptake of the same eggs, in order to obtain the calorific 

 quotient, i.e. 



Heat given off by i unit of material in gm. cal. per hour 

 Oxygen taken in by i unit of material in mgm. per hour 



This quotient, like the respiratory quotient, gives some sort of index 

 of the type of metabolism going on inside the living cells under 

 investigation. It was called by Pfliiger the "caloric coefficient of 



