366 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS .—I. 
the pet dog. The pathological picture of hyperphosphorosis in the 
horse is similar to that of Recklinghausen’s disease in man, a disease in 
which parathyroid dysfunction plays a part. Cattle, sheep and horses 
remain in good health for years on a ration which would bring a guinea- 
pig down with scurvy ina month. Weaned cattle are relatively independent 
of external supplies of all the known vitamins, and can grow to healthy 
maturity on a ration which would at once induce growth failure and. various 
avitaminoses in laboratory animals. Disabling disorders of horses may 
occur on a type of mineral imbalance which the human subject seems able 
to tolerate. 
Health or disease is thus not only a question of the composition of the 
ration, but also of the species of animal; perhaps also of the number of 
generations over which the ration is fed. 
Dr. D. Ropertson.—The association of nutrition and helminth in- 
festations. 
Experiments bearing on the influence of the plane of nutrition on the 
helminth infestations of animals which have been carried out in different 
parts of the world are discussed and the possibility of reducing losses from 
parasitic disease by suitable feeding are considered. 
Evidence that the degree of parasitic infestation in lambs has a direct 
bearing on the nutritional state of the animal, which has been obtained as 
a result of a survey which is in progress in Scotland, is reported. 
Experiments carried out at the Rowett Institute on the effect of nutrition 
on the susceptibility of sheep to worm invasion are described, and the 
total evidence that the nutritional condition of an animal is closely related 
to its susceptibility to helminthic infections is summarised. 
Discussion. (Dr. H. E. Macee; Prof. T. H. EasTerrietp; Dr. 
Scott RoBertson; Dr. Ivy MackeENnziE; Rt. Hon. W. ELLIorT, 
P.C., M.P.; Sir F. GowLanp Hopkins, Pres. R.S.) 
Monday, September 10. 
Mr. T. W. Apams and Dr. E. P. Poutton.—A new study of heat pro- 
duction in man (10.0). 
It has been shown that the heat output in man cannot be correctly calcu- 
lated by multiplying the oxygen by a factor depending on the oxygen.and 
the respiratory quotient. Consequently the R.Q. does not indicate the 
proportion of carbohydrate and fat being burnt [Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 26, 
1591 (1933)]. Thealternative theory is advanced that under basal (standard) 
conditions the carbon dioxide measures the amounts of carbohydrate and 
fat burnt in a fixed proportion at an R.Q. of about 0-8, and that a rise or 
fall in R.Q. means a partial reduction or oxidation of fat or carbohydrate. 
The proof of this theory depends on— 
(a) greater constancy of carbon dioxide than oxygen ; 
(6) high correlation of carbon dioxide and heat ; 
(c) if oxygen represents combustion, it is difficult on theoretical grounds 
to see how carbon dioxide can result from a partial reduction of 
carbohydrate ; 
(d) the correlation of oxygen and heat is not so satisfactory, since the 
theoretical limits of variation of oxygen are smaller. 
