APPENDIX II. 155 



both gentlemen abstained from all nitrogenous food. 

 During these thirty-one hours they had nothing in 

 the way of solid food except starch, fat, and sugar. 

 The two former were taken in the form of cakes. 

 Starch was made up with water into a thin paste, 

 which was then made into small cakes and fried 

 with plenty of fat. The sugar was taken dissolved 

 in tea. In addition to this there was the sugar con- 

 tained in the beer and wine, which were taken in quan- 

 tities usual in mountain excursions. It was doubtless 

 owing to this absence from food containing nitrogen 

 that the amount of this element secreted through 

 the urine declined tolerably regularly from the 

 29th of August till the evening of the 30th. Even 

 in the night of the 30th to the 31st, in spite of the 

 plentiful meal of albuminous food on the evening of 

 the 30th, the secretion of nitrogen was less than on 

 the preceding night. The reason of this is probably 

 to be sought for in the circumstance that during the 

 period of abstinence the secretion of nitrogen was 

 carried on at the expense of tissues, and now these 

 tissues required reparation. 



It is perhaps scarcely worthy of record that 

 during the ascent neither of the experimenters per- 

 spired perceptibly, since it has been proved by 

 Ranke that no appreciable amount of nitrogen leaves 

 the system in the matter of perspiration ; and as 

 Thiry has also shown that no nitrogen is got rid of 

 by respiration, it follows that, in addition to the 

 nitrogen contained in the urine, the only other mode 

 of exit for this element is through the faeces. Now 

 the proportion secreted through the faeces has 



