6io 



NA TURE 



[April 30, 1908 



sufficient funds to allow the exhibits to be safely kept 

 and properly displayed, though perhaps the exhibits 

 will not be shown in such lavish surroundings as 

 might have been desired. 



The arrangement of the court is shown in the 

 sketch-plan here reproduced. The north side of the 

 court will be mainly devoted to " Exploration," and 

 there will be a section devoted to astronomy which 

 will have amongst its exhibits a very complete astro- 

 physical observatory. The other sections in this part 

 will be devoted to oceanography, geology, and geo- 

 graphy. 



In the centre of the court there will be most in- 

 teresting exhibits from the National Physical Labor- 

 atory, also in electricity and magnetism, and in 

 mineralogy and crystallography. The south side of 

 the court will contain the meteorological exhibits, 

 with a typical meteorological observatory, a large ex- 

 hibit in chemistry, one of metallography, one of bio- 

 logy, one of anthropology, and one of heat, together 



amount and kind of the breakdown which accom- 

 panies vital activity, and so logically the study of 

 katabolism must come first. This is only possible 

 when anabolism is minimal ; hence arises the import- 

 ance of the knowledge of what occurs when the 

 intake is limited to oxygen and water. 



The work just published under the auspices of 

 Dr. Benedict, the director of the Nutrition Labora- 

 tory at Boston, U.S. .A., deals with this subject in a 

 masterly way. It is a monument of prolonged 

 and patient industry and self-sacrifice, as well 

 as of admirably planned experiments on a large 

 scale under careful and coordinated guidance. The 

 book is not one which would be selected as a com- 

 panion for a railway journey. It consists mainly of 

 the protocols of the experiments, their ultimate valu- 

 ation, and the general results to be drawn from them 

 being left for the future. 



A good deal of inanition work has been done in the 

 past upon animals with useful results ; a few observ- 



Outs'de numbers = Screen space 



Scree 



lO'O high all round wall 

 Tablesdotted 

 Floor space 

 Plain Tables 

 Glazed .. 



1 50 I'-^Ord.mncet 



Franco-British Exhibi 



with smaller exhibits of mathematicaf science and 

 visible and invisible radiations. 



It is also hoped that a meteorological observatory 

 actually at work will be arranged in the grounds of 

 the exhibition. 



THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF STARVATION.' 



'T' O the non-scientific mind the detailed study of 

 ■*■ inanition or starvation in men and animals may 

 appear both useless and unnecessary. It is in reality 

 one of the most important pieces of work the inves- 

 tigator of nutrition and allied problems can undertake. 

 In the normal condition the processes of construction 

 (anabolism) and decay (katabolism) are taking place 

 simultaneously, and one can in that condition only 

 obtain the net result of, or balance between, these 

 two antagonistic phenomena. In order to understand 

 the way in which the body builds itself up, it is 

 obviously necessary that we should first know the 



Influence 

 Pp. v-l-542 



or Inanition on Metabolism." By Francis Ga 

 . (Washington : Carnegie Institution, 1907.) 



NO. 2009, ^'OL. 77] 



ations have been made upon men, especially upon 

 professional fasters. In order to obtain trustworthy 

 averages, it is necessary that such experiments should 

 be performed upon a large number of individuals, and 

 this is the work which Dr. Benedict has, with the 

 assistance of his colleagues, and the voluntary self- 

 abnegation of a number of students and others, been 

 successful in accomplishing. Experiments on inan 

 himself are more valuable than experiments on the 

 lower animals in such a subject as this. 



During Dr. Benedict's long association with the 

 late Dr. Atwater, the celebrated respiration calori- 

 meter was evolved, and the generosity of the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington has enabled now a special 

 laboratory, situated in Boston, to be entirely devoted 

 to work of this kind. English workers may well envy 

 their more fortunate colleagues across the .Atlantic in 

 the ease with which funds are obtained both for 

 higher education : nd research. 



Each man who entered the calorimeter chamber was 

 almost entirely shut off from the world for periods 

 of two, three, and, in some cases, more days. His 

 sole connection with his fellows was a telephone ; he 



