INCREASE OF FLESH AND INCREASE OF FAT 57 



strated the surprising fact that the amounts of nitrogen which remain in the 

 body in over-nutrition may be raised in an astonishing degree. There can be 

 no doubt, therefore, that an increase in the body nitrogen may be secured by 

 the quality and quantity of food. In all probability we may go further and 

 say that this increase of nitrogen means increase of albumin, i. e., the N which 

 remains accumulates in the body in the form of albumin. Here our knowl- 

 edge for the present ceases. C. v. Voit has called attention to the fact that, 

 in an adult animal, the albumin accumulated by excessive nutrition is stored 

 up in a form readily decomposed and must therefore be differentiated from 

 true organic albumin. Hence he proposed the name "circulating albumin." 

 Since it is, however, extremely unlikely that this albumin actually " circu- 

 lates," i. e., that it is present in the circulating fluids, and as it is very much 

 more probable that it is deposited in the cells, I have suggested the term 

 " reserve albumin." This term has now been generally accepted. It is meant 

 to imply that the albumin, like the fat globules and glycogen granules, is 

 absorbed into the body of the cell, and is deposited there for a time (as reserve 

 material) without becoming an integral constituent of the cell protoplasm. 

 According to this, in the investigations conducted with me by Krug, and in 

 my Text-Book of the Pathology of Metabolism, I have regarded it as unproven 

 and improbable that the increase of body-albumin which may readily be 

 attained is synonymous with increase of muscle. Increase of muscle should 

 mean the increase of living cell-albumin. But the mass of blood-cells and 

 gland-cells unquestionably is but little influenced, and this is especially true 

 of muscle. With few exceptions (prominent among them E. Pfliiger and 

 Bornstein) later authors have accepted this view, and in a recent excellent 

 and instructive, as well as critical, dissertation by Liithje, who has produced 

 by far the greatest increase of body- album in, we find the same opinions ex- 

 pressed. If increase of albumin (so readily attained) were synonymous with 

 increase of true muscle tissue weaklings could without great difficulty be 

 transformed into robust, muscular people. But this is of course impossible. 

 Every one knows that over-nutrition will produce corpulent persons, but not 

 athletes. 



Increase of muscle is a function of the specific growth energy of the cells, 

 i. e., of cellular activity rather than of excessive nourishment. Hence we see 

 plentiful and permanent increase of muscle : 



1. In every growing body. 



2. In the fully grown body when it is gradually accustoming itself to 

 increased labor (work hypertrophy of the muscles). 



3. When; from previously insufficient nourishment or from disease, the 

 muscular tissue of the body has been diminished, and subsequently profuse 

 nourishment makes up this loss. It is a fundamental error to look for the 

 primary cause of this variety of muscle accumulation in food ; it is an expres- 

 sion of the regenerative energy of the cells. This is a mighty power. It shows 

 itself, as investigations in the metabolism of convalescence have demonstrated, 

 even when there is no question of forced feeding, and indeed when the calory 

 supply is so slight that fat must certainly be lost in the body, and even a 

 healthy person would lose body albumin. 



