CONSUMPTION OP FOOD IN THE HEALTHY 13 



form the albumin products circulate is not Imown. ISTevertheless, the view 

 that albumin and allied substances are always bodies of high atomic weight, 

 has suffered a setback. The albumoses have a molecular weight of from 1,200 

 to 2,100; the peptones, however, of only about 200, similar to that of sugar. 

 In a molecule of fat there are 8,170 calories, in a molecule of grape sugar 

 only 674, The peptones vary very slightly from the latter value. The vari- 

 eties of sugar and albumin, therefore, viewed from this standpoint, might 

 predominate in decomposition without special forces coming into play." 



Gruber ^ looks upon the prompt splitting up of the albumin of food as a 

 very necessary process, in fact as an arrangement which is quite indispensable 

 to rid the organism as soon as possible of the great bulk of soluble albumin 

 bodies which are unnecessary for its normal condition and which cannot be 

 utilized. A further increase in the size of the organs in the adult animal is 

 possible only to a slight degree after the body has reached the limit of growth 

 fixed by its hereditary germinal predisposition (increase of the size of muscles 

 as the result of body exercise). To replace the amount of organic albumin 

 daily destroyed a small portion of the food proteid is sufficient. As the accu- 

 mulation of the balance in the body would alter the function of the organs, 

 its immediate decomposition is absolutely necessary in order to keep the com- 

 position and concentration of the body fluids unchanged in spite of any varia- 

 tion in the composition of the food. 



The prompt splitting up of the food albumin is believed by Gruber to be 

 the effect of the action of enzymes with which the cells of the adult healthy 

 organism are richly supplied. This view has much to commend it. We can 

 thus readily explain the enormous albumin accumulation which occiirs in 

 convalescence from severe diseases, after prolonged starvation, etc., and is 

 almost independent of the administration of albumm. The absence of the 

 albumin-splitting enzyme in body cells that have been damaged in their 

 proteid constituents by disease explains the absence of that rapid splitting and 

 excretion of proteids which occurs in health. 



D. THE ALBUMIN MINIMUM 



We have seen that Voit's requirement of 118 grams of albumin in the 

 daily food of an adult performing moderate labor is a practical proposition 

 for rational nutrition, and does not represent the physiologic albumin mini- 

 mum which the mature body absolutely requires to supply its functioning 

 organs. Incorrectly viewed, thfs'stimiilated a great number of researches in 

 which the starting point was the question (although it can have only the- 

 oretic interest), How far may the albumin metabolism be decreased without 

 the body suffering in any of it's albumin constituents? And yet every new 

 investigator in the solution of this question attempts to establish a standard 

 and to proclaim a still lower value as the " albumin minimum." That man 

 may exist with smaller quantities of albumin, and be capable of work, Voit 

 himself readily determined in the analysis of metabolism in a vegetarian who 



1 Gruber, " Einige Bemerkungen zum Eiweissstoffweehsel." Zeitschr. f. Biol., xlii, 

 p. 407. 



