82 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLII. No. 1072 



delicate that even the slight change in the 

 center of gravity of the infant due to 

 respiration, muscular tremors, or move- 

 ments of the hand or fingers are immedi- 

 ately recorded. These graphic records are 

 now an absolute essential of all metabolism 

 experiments in our laboratory, and unless 

 the records of activity are approximately 

 alike, no use is made of the experimental 

 periods for comparison purposes. Precisely 

 this same principle applies not only to 

 babies, but to the observations on animals, 

 such as dogs, ducks, geese and guinea pigs. 

 Arrangements are made for securing sim- 

 ilar records for men and women lying in 

 the bed calorimeter or on a couch connected 

 with the respiration apparatus. 



A large number of observations have 

 been made on normal animals, chiefly dogs, 

 rabbits, and more recently geese. The in- 

 fluence of partial inanition, of tempera- 

 ture environment, of the ingestion of vari- 

 ous kinds of foods, and of living in an 

 atmosphere containing a high percentage of 

 oxygen have all been the subject of re- 

 searches which are more or less nearly com- 

 plete. It was obviously necessary to develop 

 special apparatus and special technique for 

 these researches and in all instances the 

 observations included a large number of 

 control tests of the apparatus and experi- 

 ments with control animals. 



While manj^, if not indeed the ma.jority of 

 the researches in the Nutrition Laboratory- 

 may be considered as of an abstract, scien- 

 tific nature, one research certainly has far- 

 reaching, practical bearings, namely, the 

 investigation of the influence of alcohol 

 upon the metabolic, neural and muscular 

 processes. The laboratory is at present en- 

 gaged in an extended program of research 

 on these vexed problems and not only is the 

 influence of alcohol upon the metabolic 

 processes studied with the special equip- 

 ment of the laboratory, but a special labo- 



ratory has been constructed for the study 

 of the influence upon the neural and mus- 

 cular processes. The equipment of this 

 special laboratory includes the exceedingly 

 ingenious string galvanometer of Einthoven 

 for measurements of the pulse and heart, 

 the faradic stimulus apparatus of Kro- 

 necker and of Martin, and particularly the 

 apparatus of Dodge. In the past year the 

 psychological phases of the work have been 

 further extended by Professor Walter E. 

 Miles to include observations on profes- 

 sional typists, with a most careful analysis 

 of the movements and reactions incidental 

 to typewriting. A program for the com- 

 plete research has been prepared and sub- 

 mitted to a large number of European and 

 American scientists for comment, and the 

 studies will be planned in accordance with 

 this program. Such an elaborate program 

 emphasizes the value of being able to con- 

 duct researches continuously for a series of 

 years and thus accumulate definite and au- 

 thoritative data with regard to problems 

 that have heretofore been studied for the 

 most part in a desultory manner. 



Perhaps the most ambitious undertaking 

 of the laboratory thus far has been a recent 

 studj^ of prolonged fasting. Just prior to 

 the establishment of the Carnegie Nutri- 

 tion Laboratory a special fund was appro- 

 priated by the trustees of the Carnegie In- 

 stitution of Washington for the study of 

 fasting at Wesleyan University, Middle- 

 town, Conn. Upon the basis of this investi- 

 gation plans were made for studying a 

 fasting subject over a long period, but it 

 was not until 1912 that opportunity arose 

 for satisfactorily conducting such a re- 

 search. The subject fasted for a period of 

 thirty-one days, taking absolutely no food 

 and drinking but 900 c.c. of distilled water 

 per day. The subject was also studied dur- 

 ing a short preliminary period and during 

 a three-day realimentation period. During 



