298 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



STAFF NOTES. 



Following the usual custom, Dr. Miles prepared an extensive confi- 

 dential report of his foreign trip of 1920, which represents the eighth 

 volume of this series of reports. Inasmuch as these volumes are illus- 

 trated by many photographs and give the results of personal surveys 

 of the several scientific laboratories, the series forms an unusual record 

 of development in laboratory construction, technique, and output. 



After many years of successful and profitable assistance in the 

 Laboratory, particularly in observations on the metabolism of children 

 and in the making of delicate gas analyses, Miss Alice Johnson re- 

 signed from the Laboratory staff in the spring of 192L 



INVESTIGATIONS IN PROGRESS. 



Breathing, gaseous exchange, and metabolism asleep and awake. — In 

 a previous research upon the metabolism in rectal feeding, it was 

 found that when the subjects fell asleep during the periods of observa- 

 tion there was a marked change in the volume of lung ventilation and 

 in the relation between the volumes of carbon dioxide and oxygen. 

 During the past year a systematic attempt has been made by Dr. T. M. 

 Carpenter to study the character of the breathing, the quantitative 

 relationship in the gaseous exchange and the metabolism, with medical 

 students and other individuals as subjects. The experiments were con- 

 ducted in all cases with the subject in the post-absorptive condition 

 and between the hours of 9 a. m. and 1 p. m. Usually the length of 

 the observation was about two hours, divided into from 12 to 15 

 periods. Most of the 26 subjects were drowsy or asleep at least part of 

 the time. The respiratory exchange was determined by the gasometer 

 method, the expired air being collected in continuously succeeding 

 periods by means of two 100-liter Tissot spirometers and analyzed 

 by means of the Haldane portable gas-analysis apparatus. Periodic 

 heart-rate counts were made and continuous records of the respira- 

 tion-rate and absence of activity were obtained. A graphic control 

 of the drowsiness and sleep was sectired. Mr. W. M. Konikov assisted 

 in the experiments. The investigation is being continued. 



Composition of urine as affected hy ingestion of 2.76 per cent alcohol. — In 

 the research conducted by Professor W. R. Miles upon the physio- 

 logical effect of the ingestion of 2.75 per cent alcohol, the urine was 

 regularly collected in periods of 15 to 30 minutes from immediately 

 preceding the ingestion of the liquid until at least 2 hours after this 

 time. Dr. Carpenter took advantage of this fact to determine the 

 influence, if any, of this dilution of alcohol upon the elimination of 

 chlorides, nitrogen, and total sulphur by the kidneys. The urines of 

 14 days with alcohol and those of 10 control days were analyzed. The 

 chlorides were determined in nearly all of the samples, the nitrogen in 

 the majority of them, and the total sulphur in a smaller number. 



