THE FASTING METABOLISM. 87 
are believed to have been in good bodily condition (well nourished) 
at the beginning of the trials, he obtains the following average 
results: 
Nitrogen Excretion per Day. 
. . Proteid 
aaa aa eee a 
6 In 0 
ge Live Wetsnt, Metabolism. 
Grms. 
Swine ............ 115.0 6.8 0.06 7.3 
Man.............-. 63.7 12.6 0.20 15.6 
28.6 5.1 0.18 13.2 
Dog as vans wee sees 18.7 3.8 0.20 10.7 
7.2 2.2 0.30 13.5 
Rabbit ........... 2.7 1.2 0.46 16.5 
Guinea pig ........ 0.6 0.4 0.65 10.8 
Goose ..........-- 3.3 0.8 0.23 7.4 
Henge ae eanie o2 eu 2.1 0.7 0.34 10.0 
As will appear later, the total metabolism of a small animal is 
greater per unit of weight than that of alarge animal. The above 
figures show that the same thing is true of the proteid metabolism. 
When, however, the proteid metabolism is computed as a percent- 
age of the total metabolism, as in the last column of the table, this 
dependence upon the live weight disappears. While the figures 
still show considerable variations, these are much reduced and 
show no connection with the live weight. In other words, the proteid 
metabolism tends to be a somewhat uniform percentage of the 
total metabolism, ranging in these experiments, aside from two 
apparently exceptional results, between 10 and 16 per cent. 
The individual experiments cited by Voit show a similar general 
uniformity, both in the same animal on successive days of fasting 
and in case of different animals. Thus twenty-seven experiments 
on the dog gave the following: 
Number of Cases. 
Range of Proteid Metabolism in Per Cent. 
of Total Metabolism. 
Absolute. Per Cent. 
Less than, 10) jcc. cscceea canes awnees 4 14.8 
VQ AVA ae od shan ohne ares eae eS cat ee ee 15 55.6 
VAT  oscses suave eta eve tena 6 Bue 8G RG a hceie aie 5 18.5 
More than 17.......... cee eceeeeees 3 11.1 
27 100.0 
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