50 ANALYSIS OF DISTURBANCES OF METABOLISM 



of life was long ago solved by the hypothesis that the organism is a machine 

 in which the food products undergo combustion somewhat as in an oven, 

 thereby becoming a source for the production of heat and force. 



This is what Liebig assumed for the N-free foods (carbohydrates and 

 fats), which he therefore designated as respiratory materials; because they 

 undergo combustion without taking part in the structure of the body he did 

 not consider them true foods. In true metabolism, in the decomposition of 

 products, in labor and in the regeneration of tissue destroyed thereby, they 

 have no part according to his conception. And when Voit explained the 

 decided increase of albumin decomposition upon adding albumin to an already 

 sufficient diet by an increase of " circulating albumin," and (in place of the 

 "luxury consumption" of albumin, which was the current theory) showed 

 the special conditions of decomposition of circulating albumin, making it 

 responsible for the increase in albumin decomposition, then it was proclaimed 

 that albumin also may be decomposed without being taken up into the organic 

 parts of the body. Thus the opinion became more deeply rooted, favored by 

 the purely dynamic conception of the food products as carriers of energy, 

 that without any entrance of the food into the tissue of the living cells, the 

 condition of the body could be influenced by the food in the circulation, where 

 the nutritive products were supposed to be built up by transference into higher 

 stages of oxidation. In this manner the organism was supposed to be able to 

 utilize its food and the energy resulting to cover its losses in heat and mechan- 

 ical labor. 



This conception found decided support in the demonstration by Voit that 

 muscular labor does not go hand in hand with an increased albumin decom- 

 position. 



Many objections may be raised, however, to such a conception of the 

 processes of nutrition. Since this conception occurs particularly in the arti- 

 cles on metabolism written by clinical pathologists it is probably to be ex- 

 plained by the historical development of the pathology of metabolism on the 

 basis of Voit's law of metabolism and nutrition. 



Certainly much would have been otherwise if the principles which Pfliiger 

 advocated in his numerous publications had been accepted. 



In many clinical researches of metabolism the subject of investigation can 

 only be comprehended after considering its historical development. 



I shall only refer to the question, still mooted,^ whether alcohol is a 

 nutrient and an albumin saver. As a carrier of energy alcohol is of even 

 greater importance than the carbohydrates, the recognized albumin savers 

 (one gram of alcohol = 7 calories, one gram of carbohydrates = 4.1 calo- 

 ries). 



How could this question have been so long disputed if alcohol, following 

 the dynamic laws, simply undergoes combustion in the body, and in this 

 manner offers its energy value to the organism ? And why, in the numerous 

 clinical investigations of metabolism in regard to the albumin-saving action 



1 K. Rosemann, " Ueber die angebliche eiweisssparende Wirkung des Alkohols." 

 Pfluger's Arch., Bd. Ixxvii, p. 405 ; here also the other literature. 



