A HISTOEY OF METABOLISM 63 



What one now calls the "respiratory quotient" was 0.765, whereas 

 Regnault and Reiset had found 0.744. 



After this fashion the metabolism was also estimated for each day. 

 The oxygen consumption fell from 44 gm. on the second day to 31 gin. on 

 the sixteenth day, just before the premortal fall in body temperature. 



At the death of the animal the body was sectioned and the various 

 parts we-re weighed when fresh and their dry weights and fat contents 

 were later obtained. A normal cat was then killed and similarly analyzed. 

 The 'first cat before fasting had weighed 2572 gm., and at death 1241.2 gm. 

 The- original composition of the organs of the cat, when it began to fast, 

 was computed on the basis of the analysis of the normal cat. The loss 

 of weight of different organs in starvation could then be computed. 



This is the historical forerunner of several similar extremely laborious 

 experiments. 



In 1852 we might have read this modern statement: 



The extent of the respiration, like every other component of the metabolism 

 process, is to be regarded as a function of one variable, the food taken, and one 

 constant, a distinctly typical metabolism (Respirationsgrosse) which varies with 

 the age and sex of the individual. This factor characterizes every animal of a 

 given race, size,, age and sex. It is just as constant and characteristic as the 

 anatomical structure and the corresponding mechanical arrangements of the 

 body. It is in the main determined by the heat consumption in the organism; 

 that is to say, the replacement quota for heat lost to the body through radiation 

 and conduction to the environment in a given unit of time. It may therefore 

 be used to determine this, or in case the factor of heat loss is known, one can 

 deduce the extent of the metabolism. 



This typical metabolism ... is that of the fasting animal. It must be 

 nearly the same in animals having the same body volume, surface and tempera- 

 ture; the larger the body surface, the body volume and temperature remaining 

 constant, or the higher the body temperature with surface and volume constant, 

 the higher will be the metabolism as determined by the laws of static heat. 



Of course a sharp mathematical treatment of this phenomenon can be 

 thought of only after very numerous and exact experimental determination upon 

 animals of most varied form, size and temperature. 



A footnote states : "This is an extensive program and may require 

 many decades for its solution." It is suggested that experimenters divide 

 the investigations into the animal kingdom after the fashion that astron- 

 omers have divided portions of the heavens among themselves for ob- 

 servations. Bidder and Schmidt state that, acting with this intent, they 

 have dealt almost exclusively with the cat. 



"Animals cannot maintain the typical metabolism over a prolonged 

 fasting period." 



They define a "typical food minimum' as that quantity of assimilable 

 food upon which the body maintains its weight over a long period of 

 time. A slightly lesser quantity than this causes the body to lose weight. 



After giving much meat "there is a double Luxus consumption : ex- 



