1908] PIERCE—RESPIRATION CALORIMETER 197 
the temperatures recorded for the unsilvered flask, containing live 
peas, and with the silvered flask into which dead (killed) peas had 
been placed, one sees at once the superiority of the silvered flask as 
an insulator, and also that there was liberated and retained in the 
silvered flask containing live peas a very substantial amount of 
energy in the form of heat, even within the first twenty-four hours. 
Even the unsilvered flask gave a result better than I had ever been 
able to obtain with the ordinary insulators available in the laboratory. : 
‘emp. live peas |Temp. dead peas . live as 
Date : silvered silvered — Tee ee Ree ee 
Feb. 26, 4:30 p.u.......... 17 17 at 
AM ee: 19 16 13 
Ds” Siem 20 16 16 
a eect 23 17.5 se 
yh Me 32 15-5 15-5 6 
Ce 33 16 
a ee eee 36 16 ~ 
OTRO BM 38 15 ) 73 °5 
CL” eee apelin 39 15 ies oe 
Le. tee eee ° I 49 
Mar. 1, 10:30 A.M reer 8 : 17-5 ~s 
2, 10:20 A.M 45 14 15 = 
ee ee eee 47-5 14 18 ie 
ES 3 ee ee 49 14.5 sts 2 
Oe 3 14 15 es 
ee OM ee 4 15 bid 
mit oe os. at+ 15-5 - ie 
me a eee 4:5 15 se or te 
eee. s+ 15 23 
a:50 PSE 6 15-5 23 7 
ee 4 14-5 = 
P2520 OMe, 4 Pape 
WiGooam, ....... ° 14 a4 
STS arn 
When the experiment was stopped on the ninth day, because the 
temperature had begun to fall, it was at once evident that fermentation 
been very active for some time. It was inevitable that this 
should be so, for I had not taken the slightest pains to sterilize any- 
thing. But in fermentation and decay heat is liberated, for these are 
Processes in which respiration, as well as nutrition, takes place. We 
have here, then, the heat liberated in the respiration of the peas and of 
other organisms in the flask. The obvious thing to do in suc- 
ceeding experiments is to sterilize the peas and everything else used 
in the €xperiment, and to make similar experiments to determine the 
heat liberated by various ferment organisms. This I have done, to a 
