394 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 740 



gous compounds of the carbon series, free 

 from nitrogen. 



J. Bishop Tingle 

 McMastee Univeksitt, 

 Toronto, Canada, 

 December 16, 1908 



RUSSIAN RESEARCH IN METABOLISM 



The activity of Kussian investigators in 

 problems of animal nutrition and metabolism 

 in general, has been but imperfectly noted by 

 the large majority of v?orkers in metabolism. 

 This is in large part due to the fact that in 

 spite of increasing interest in international 

 cooperation in scientific research in all 

 branches, the Russian language remains, and 

 probably will continue to remain, a distinctly 

 unintelligible vehicle for conveying scientific 

 communications to the world at large. More 

 recently at least one Russian journal is is- 

 suing simultaneously an edition in French. 



Recognizing the great importance of many 

 of the earlier Russian researches, the Office of 

 Experiment Stations of the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture has from time to time had 

 translated and published abstracts of much 

 of the Russian research in that particular 

 branch of science dealing with metabolism. 

 These abstracts were translated in large part 

 by Professor Peter Fireman, formerly of the 

 George Washington University, and the ad- 

 mirable digest of metabolism experiments by 

 Atwater and Langworthy' contains many of 

 them. 



A dissertation entitled "Production of 

 Heat by Healthy Man in the Condition of 

 Comparative Rest," by A. Likhachev, is espe- 

 cially valuable as giving a complete descrip- 

 tion and tests of the Pashutin respiration 

 calorimeter. This was translated at the in- 

 stance of the Office of Experiment Stations, 

 TJ. S. Department of Agriculture, by Dr. 

 Fireman. Copies of the translation are on 

 file at the Nutrition Laboratory and also at 

 the Office of Experiment Stations, TJ. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture. 



In connection with the preparation for pub- 



' Bulletin 45, Office of Experiment Stations, 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1898. 



lication of the results of a series of experi- 

 ments on fasting men made at Wesleyan Uni- 

 versity, I arranged with a young Russian 

 school teacher, H. Levin, to translate com- 

 pletely a lengthy article entitled " Metabo- 

 lism during Fasting," by A. Sadovyen. This 

 article is of interest in that it describes a 

 series of experiments on a fasting man in the 

 Pashutin respiration chamber. The trans- 

 lation is preserved in the reading room of this 

 laboratory. 



On a recent visit to a number of European 

 laboratories it was my good fortune to include 

 several of the laboratories in St. Petersburg, 

 and there I came into intimate contact with a 

 great deal of research which was to me wholly 

 unknown. I found that in certain instances 

 the briefest kind of an abstract had been noted 

 in some of the German abstract journals, but 

 nothing approximating an adequate digest of 

 this work had appeared as yet in anything but 

 Russian. Thanks to the kindness of Pro- 

 fessors Likhachev and Avroroff and Dr. Kar- 

 taschefsky, many important monographs were 

 placed in my hands and, on my return to 

 America, arrangements were made for their 

 translation. 



Professor Likhachev sent to the Nutrition 

 Laboratory a copy of Pashutin's treatise on 

 experimental pathology. This large work, 

 consisting of two bulky volumes, contains a 

 great deal of new, unpublished material, par- 

 ticularly in the section (some 800 pages) 

 dealing with inanition. During the past year 

 the whole section on inanition has been com- 

 pletely translated by Michel Groosenberg. 

 This valuable work contains a large amount 

 of original material, chiefly from Albitsky's 

 laboratory, and is of importance to all work- 

 ers in animal or human nutrition. The trans- 

 lation has been typewritten, manifolded and 

 bound and copies of this translation are de- 

 posited in the surgeon general's library in 

 Washing-ton, the New York Public Library, 

 and in the John Crerar Library in Chicago. 

 Two other monographs presenting the results 

 of experiments on man in the Pashutin res- 

 piration calorimeter are " The Influence of 

 Alcohol on the Heat and Gas Exchange in 



