Reach, 1902

In connection with an investigation on rectal feeding, Reach3 made 2 experiments, each with 60 grams of dextrose, and 3 experiments with 60 grams of cane sugar, the sugars being given per os. The subject was a man 27 years old, who was suspected of suffering in a slight degree from hypothyroidism. Reach concludes from these experiments that after the ingestion of 60 grams of dextrose the respiratory quotient immediately rises. He found in the 2 experiments with dextrose that the maximum increase in the quotient appeared in the second hour, being 0.087 and 0.101, respectively, above the basal values of 0.792 and 0.715. After 60 grams of cane sugar the rise in the respiratory quotient was more rapid, the increment above the basal values of 0.821, 0.886, and 0.768 in the 3 experiments being 0.104, 0.104, and 0.107, respectively. The values for the oxygen consumption are also given for 2 of the cane-sugar experiments and one of the dextrose experiments. With cane sugar they show a marked and constant increment in the oxygen consumption of approximately 15 to 20 per cent and with dextrose a rapid rise of 20 per cent, followed by an almost immediate fall to the basal value.

Johansson And Koraen, 1902

Employing essentially the same experimental methods as those used in former researches, and laying special emphasis upon the simultaneous effects of muscular work and the ingestion of food upon metabolism, Johansson and Koraen4 studied the influence of the two factors separately, using the food materials sugar, olive oil, and eggs. Although based only upon carbon-dioxide determinations and thus liable to the errors which may be ascribed to this method of computation, the results of these studies are of unusual importance. Johansson and Koraen conclude that when a certain amount of muscular work is performed the increase in the basal metabolism is a definite value and the increment due to food is independent of the increment due to muscular work - that is, food of the same amount and composition produces a like increase in the metabolism, irrespective of whether the subject is at rest or doing work. The ingestion of carbohydrates apparently produced the same increase in the carbon-dioxide output with muscular work as with complete rest; protein likewise gave the same effect during rest as during work; practically no increment was found with olive oil. The paper concludes with interesting theoretical discussions in which the authors contend that the ingestion of food produces an increase in the carbon-dioxide production not by reason of an increased work of digestion, but because of an influence upon the metabolism of the food after its absorption.

1Rubner, Sitzber. K. Preuss. Akad. Wiss., 1910, Part 1, p. 316. 2Rubner, Die Gesetze des Energieverbrauchs bei der Ernahrung, 1902. 3Reach, Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 1902, 47, p. 231. 4Johansson and Koraen, Skand. Arch. f. Physiol., 1902, 13, p. 251.

Atwater And Benedict, 1903

Although a large number of resting metabolism experiments with food were made with the calorimeter at Wesleyan University, Middletown, by Atwater and his associates, but one series lends itself for comparison. Experiments Nos. 35 and 36 with subject J. C. W., reported by Atwater and Benedict,1 were carried out December 9 to 14, 1900. In these two experiments the subject remained continuously in the chamber. In the first experiment of 4 days the daily diet consisted of 100 grams of beef, 25 grams of butter, 850 grams of milk, 300 grams of bread, 50 grams of breakfast cereal, 50 grams of crackers, and 20 grams of sugar, with a total heat of combustion of 2,519 calories per day. The determined heat output per day was 2,397 calories. The fifth day of the experimental series was a complete fast. On this day the heat determined was 2,253 calories, or 144 calories less than that on the food days. The increment due to digestion may therefore be estimated as approximately 6 per cent on the 24-hour basis.

Reach, 1904

In experiments with a 15-year old obese boy, in which the method of Zuntz and Geppert was used, Reach2 found that the oxygen consumption after a meal was much less than was commonly experienced. This is in harmony with results obtained in earlier experiments made by Jaquet and Svenson3 on obese individuals.

Johansson, Billstrom, And Heijl, 1904

In continuation of the interesting studies carried out in Johansson's laboratory on the influence of the ingestion of carbohydrates upon the carbon-dioxide excretion, Johansson, Billstrom, and Heijl1 report respiration experiments with men in which cane sugar, dextrose, and levulose were used. Following the usual Stockholm technique, the sugars were taken in varying amounts with varying quantities of water. The carbon-dioxide output at first seemed to increase proportionately with the amount of sugar taken. With larger portions, i. e., 200 grams of cane sugar, the increase was relatively smaller. Cane sugar and levulose had about the same effect, while dextrose had a much smaller effect than either levulose or cane sugar. In an attempt to explain the difference between levulose and dextrose the authors assume that the rapidity of combustion is greater and the rapidity of storage as glycogen less for levulose than for dextrose. They conclude that the ingestion of carbohydrates actually increases the energy transformation, unless it is assumed that there is a fat formation with a cleavage of carbon dioxide.

1Atwater and Benedict, U. S. Dept. Agr., Office Exp. Sta. Bull. No. 136, 1903.

2Reach, Salkowski-Festschrift, 1904, p. 319.

3Jaquet and Svenson, Zeitschr. f. klin. Med., 1900, 41, p. 375. On the contrary, results obtained later by Haussleiter (Zeitschr. f. exp. Pathol. u. Therapie, 1915, 17, p. 413) lead him to infer that the increase in the metabolism after the ingestion of food in obesity is not less than with normal individuals, but the falling off in the curve is evidently retarded.