96 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS ON THE METABOLISM 
OF MATTER AND ENERGY IN THE 
HUMAN BODY. 
BY W. O. ATWATER AND F. G. BENEDICT, 
WITH THE CO-OPERATION OF 
A. P. BRYANT, A. W. SMITH AND J. F. SNELL. 

INTRODUCTION. 
In previous Reports of the Station descriptions have been 
given of the respiration calorimeter and of some of the experi- 
ments which have been made therewith.* In the present arti- 
cle the results of experiments made up to the close of the year 
1900 are summarized. + 
The ultimate purpose of experiments with men in the respi- 
ration calorimeter is the study of some of the fundamental 
laws of nutrition; and the whole inquiry is based upon the 
principle that the chemical and physical changes which take 
place within the body, and to which the general term ** meta- 
bolism’’ is applied, occur in obedience to the laws of the con- 
servation of matter and energy. 
No one doubts that the law of the conservation of matter 
governs its metabolism in the living organism, and it is gen- 
erally believed that the law of the conservation of energy 
likewise applies to the metabolism of energy. Quantitative 
determinations of the applications of this law are, however, 
desirable. 
The main subjects proposed for study have been the follow- 
ing: 
1. An experimental demonstration of the application of the 
law of the conservation of energy in the body. ; 

* See Reports for 1896 and 1897. 
+ These experiments are made in codperation with the U. S. Department of Agricul- 
ture. ‘he full details, which would be far too voluminous for an experiment station 
publication, and which demand a much wider circulation than a report of this Station 
could give, are being printed in bulletins of the Office of Experiment Stations. The 
present summary of results is adapted from an extended report to be published as . 
a bulletin of that Office. It is believed that the brevity of this summary is thus 
justified. W.O.A. 
