290 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



Normal metabolism of men and women. — Although sufficient material 

 has been accumulated in the work of the Laboratory to warrant the 

 publication of a series of observations on 89 normal men and 68 normal 

 women, the data were secured for the most part upon individuals 

 approximating 20 to 25 years of age. The attempt is now being made, 

 therefore, to extend these observations to include studies of the metab- 

 olism of both younger and older individuals. This work is being carried 

 on with the assistance of Mr. L. E. Emmes, of the Laboratory stafif. 



Metabolism of the obese. — The supposedly anomalous metabolism 

 changes in the obese, which have long puzzled physicians, have been 

 the object of study during the past winter. With the cooperation of 

 Dr. E. L. Locke, of Boston, studies have been made of several extremely 

 obese people who are otherwise normal. The investigation is still in 

 progress and important data are being accumulated. These experi- 

 ments are being made by Mr. Emmes with the unit respiration appa- 

 ratus in this Laboratory and will ultimately be supplemented by direct 

 calorimetric measurements. 



The conversion of carbohydrate to fat in the animal body. — Conferences 

 with numerous scientists on my several European tours have shown 

 that one of the most important direct calorimetric observations needed is 

 that of the energy transformation incidental to the conversion of carbo- 

 hydrate to fat. It has already been shown in this Laboratory^ that, 

 even with dogs which are deprived of the pancreas, it is possible to secure 

 the formation of fat from carbohydrate ; but certain animals lend them- 

 selves particularly to this study, namely, swine and geese. As the 

 classical observations on this subject of Bleibtrau in Pfluger's labora- 

 tory^ were unfortunately not accompanied by calorimetric observations, 

 a study has been made during the past winter of the conversion of 

 carbohydrates to fat with geese as subjects, the carbon-dioxide produc- 

 tion, oxygen consumption, and the heat-production being measured 

 simultaneously. Six full-grown geese were used in each experiment, 

 these being put in a special form of cage and, after surfeit feeding, 

 placed inside of the bed calorimeter. The preliminary data for this 

 extended series of observations were taken by Professor Smith to 

 Europe for conference with several scientists especially interested in 

 this problem. 



Comparison of the methods of determining the respiratory exchange. — 

 The experimental work in this investigation, which has been in the 

 hands of Mr. T. M. Carpenter, has been supplemented by a series of 

 control tests of the Tissot methods, by burning small amounts of ethyl 

 alcohol in a specially constructed apparatus. 



Considerable time during the past year has been spent in assembling 

 the large amount of data collected in this research, which has extended 



'Morgulis and Pratt, Am. Journ. Physiol., 32. p. 200. 1913. 



