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INVESTIGATIONS ON METABOLISM. 85 
INVESTIGATIONS ON METABOLISM IN THE 
HUMAN ORGANISM. 

PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT OF EXPERIMENTS ON THE INCOME AND 
OUTGO OF THE BODY AND THE EFFECTS OF 
DIFFERENT DIETS. 

Be Wet WAH, C.D. WOODS :.AND F, G. BENEDICT: 

In the year 1892 the first steps were taken at Wesleyan 
University toward the development of an apparatus for meas- 
uring the income and outgo of the animal body. It was 
proposed to study, among other things, the application of the 
law of the conservation of energy in the animal organism and 
plans were made for experiments with men. The investigation 
was undertaken jointly by Professors Atwater and Rosa, and 
was conducted under the patronage of the University and in 
connection with the Storrs Experiment Station. In the report 
of the Station for 1893 the purpose of the inquiry was stated 
in the following language: 
‘* Research upon nutrition has brought us to the point where the study of the 
application of the laws of the conservation of matter and of energy in the living 
organism are essential. That is to say, we must be able to determine the 
balance of income and outgo of the body, and this balance must be expressed 
both in terms of matter and of energy. For this purpose a respiration calori- 
meter is being devised. This is an apparatus in which an animal or a man may 
be placed for a number of hours or days and the amounts and composition of 
the food and drink and inhaled air; the amounts and composition of the 
excreta, solid, liquid and gaseous; the potential energy of the materials taken 
into the body and given off from it; the quantity of heat radiated from the 
body; and the mechanical equivalent of the muscular work done, are all to be 
measured. The experimenting is complicated, costly and time-consuming. The 
results already obtained are, however, very encouraging in their promise of 
future success.” 
Fortunately for the success of the enterprise the interest 
of the trustees and officers of Wesleyan University, especially 
in the purely scientific phases of the inquiry, was such that 
laboratory rooms and appliances were made available, as 
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