| a STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 




TABLE 17. 
Summary of results in which alcohol was burned tn the 
calorimeter. 
ee Water. Heat. 
Grams. Grams. Calories. 
Amount required, - - - - - | 19,239.8 | 12,264.4 | O4;5 54am 
Amount found, 2 - : - |. 19,206.9 | 12,379.1, } 04,5 00am 
Ratio of amount found to amount required, 99.8% *T00.9%. 99.9% 




* After the completion of the later experiments a slight leak was found in the 
“valve box’? through which the outgoing air current passed on its way toand from - 
the ‘‘freezers,’’ and by which water, condensed on the outside, may have entered. 
There is every reason to believe that the quantity of water actually found was thus 
made too large by a fraction of I percent. In the average of the first nine experi- 
ments the amount of water found was 100.6 per cent. of that required. Asan alcohol 
check test was generally made between each two metabolism experiments or series 
of experiments we have a means of knowing when the leak began to affect the results 
and the amount of the error introduced. See Bulletin 109 of the Office of Experiment 
Stations, above referred to. ; 
EHXPHRIMENTS WITH MEN. 
As already suggested, the first purpose in the original plan- 
ning of these investigations was to develop an apparatus and 
method for the measurement of the energy transformed in the 
body. The underlying thought was that if these measure- 
ments could be made accurately it might be possible to learn 
whether the law of the conservation of energy obtains in the 
living organism; and if this could be accomplished the prin- 
ciple and apparatus, could be utilized for a more successful 
study of some of the fundamental laws of nutrition than would 
otherwise be possible. The purpose of the following discus- 
sion is to consider what evidence the results of the experiments 
thus far made with the respiration calorimeter furnish regard- 
ing the application of the law of the conservation of energy to 
the living body. 
The first satisfactory experiments with men in the apparatus 
were made in 1896, although there has been several prelim- 
inary trials, the data from which were not sufficiently complete. 
Between February, 1896, and May, 1902, inclusive, 55 experi- 
ments, covering all told 171% days, were carried out. In the 
first four of these the balance of income and outgo of matter 
only was determined; but in all the others the measurements of 
energy were also made. All but six of the latter give results 
bearing on the question here under discussion; the omission of — 
these six being explained below. 





