16 ANALYSIS OF DISTURBANCES OP METABOLISM 



have shown, however, that a slight accumulation of albumin day by day can 

 be attained by giving a food of high calory value for a long time. With food 

 which differed from that of the prior period (when he was in N-equilibrium) 

 by an increase of 1,710 calories, albumin remaining the same, Krug retained 

 decided N-amounts (a total of about 50 grams in fifteen days) and, what is 

 remarkable, the gain during the last of the fifteen days of forced feeding 

 equalled that of the first days. 



Liithje ^ has lately obtained still larger N-retention in his forced feeding 

 experiments in which he increased the total energy administration of the 

 food, like Krug, and also raised the quantity of albumin decidedly above the 

 requirement (albumin administration up to 380 grams with -6,035 calories). 

 The total. retention in twenty-six days amounted to 149.61 grams of N. 



This decided N-retention within a short time, even more than the small 

 values formerly obtained, raised doubts as to whether the N retained in the 

 body actually indicated a gain in " flesh." 



Voit has never regarded the K-retention obtained by forced feeding as an 

 increase of "organic albumin"; he held the view that the albumin saved 

 under the influence of nutrition remained in the circulation until it was 

 changed into organic albumin by the slow production of new tissue. As, 

 however, under the influence of hypernutrition, the plasma of blood and 

 lymph does not, so far as we know, become richer in albumin, v. Noorden 

 proposed the hypothesis that the albumin which is saved, and not yet utilized 

 for the structure of new tissue, is retained as a dead mass in the living proto- 

 plasm of the cells, analogous to the superfluous glycogen and fat, remaining 

 there as " reserve albumin," though with decidedly different conditions of de- 

 composition than are present in organic albumin. Correspondingly, he 

 draws a sharp distinction between increase of " reserve albumin " and in- 

 crease of muscle (by -which he understands the increase of living cell albumin). 

 He believes the latter to be a result of the specific growth energy of the cells, 

 a function of cellular labor, and not a result of extra nutrition since, as we 

 have seen, hypernutrition increases only the reserve albumin. 



This hypothesis of v. Noorden's is not in agreement with Pfliiger's ' view- 

 regarding the meaning of the reserved and deposited albumin. In the latter's 

 numerous publications on the subject, he maintained that the accumulated 

 albumin is soon deposited as cell substance in the body of the animal, and 

 therefore at once takes a prominent part in the total metabolism. Pfliiger 

 does not regard it as a dead cell inclusion, but as a " working mass," and he 

 also thus explains the increase of albumin metabolism which occurs after 

 proteid administration as an increase of the " working cell substance," upon 

 the amount of which, in his opinion, the total metabolism is directly de- 

 pendent. 



1 Liithje, Beitrage zur " Kenntniss des Eiweissstoffwechsels." Zeitschr. f. Min. 

 Med., xliv, p. 21. 



^Pfliiger. Arch. f..d. ges. Phys., Bd. Hi, p. 1. " Ueber einige Gesetze des Eiweiss- 

 stofTwechsels," Bd. liv, p. 333. " Ueber den Einfluss, welchen Menge und Art der 

 Nahrung auf die Grosse des StofTwechsels und der Leistungsfahigkeit ausuben." 

 Pfliiger's Arch., Bd. Ixxvii, p. 425. 



