Grafe, 1913

Grafe,3 using his admirable model of the Jaquet apparatus in the Heidelberg clinic for observations on a professional fasting woman, noted that the basal metabolism during fast was 1,180 calories per day or 25 calories per kilogram of body-weight. In the first food experiment after the ingestion of 397 grams carbohydrate and 60 grams alcohol, the total calorific value of which was 770 calories greater than the basal value, the heat production fell off slightly in 20 1/2 hours. Grafe points out that this finding agrees with that of Johansson,1 who observed no increase in the metabolism following the ingestion of carbohydrate by a fasting individual, i. e., an individual with low glycogen storage. In a second respiration experiment, in which the subject took 278 grams of carbohydrate, 120 grams of fat, and 30 grams of alcohol, with a total energy content of about 2,180 calories, the increase in the combustion in 20 3/4 hours was very small compared with the fasting value, being only 4 per cent. Thus both experiments indicate an extraordinarily small increase in the heat production following the ingestion of non-protein food after fasting.

1Togel, Brezina, and Durig, Biochem. Zeitschr., 1913, 50, p. 296. 2Schopp, Deutsch. Arch. f. klin. Med., 1913, 110, p. 284. 3Grafe, Deutsch. Arch. f. klin. Med., 1913-14, 113, p. 1.

Howland, 1913

In studying the addition of nutrose to the ordinary diet in the case of infants, Howland2 found with the Cornell calorimeter an increase in the heat production per square meter per day of 10 per cent in one case and 26 per cent in another. Although the basal values without food were not obtained, the increment due to the ingestion of the highly nitrogenous nutrose over that with ordinary food is of significance in this connection.

Bergmark, 1914-15

Bergmark,3 investigating rectal feeding, reports 4 experiments in which 100 grams and 50 grams of dextrose, respectively, were taken per os, the author being the subject. The experiments were made in Johansson's laboratory in Stockholm and with the usual Johansson technique. After 100 grams of dextrose, Bergmark found a rise in the carbon-dioxide production of 14.94 grams in 6 hours and 7.02 grams in the same length of time after 50 grams of dextrose. The character of the katabolism was not shown, as the measurements of the metabolism were based only upon the data for the carbon-dioxide production. The agreement with Johansson's earlier results, however, is proof of the uniformity of technique.

Bergonie, 1915

Bergonie,4 without reporting any experimental evidence of his own, calculated the increment in energy output due to the ingestion of three meals a day with a normal individual as being equivalent to 200 calories.

Gephart And Du Bois, 1915

Du Bois, in carrying out the extended series of researches with the respiration calorimeter in the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology, an apparatus designed especially for the study of pathological cases, decided to include the determination of the basal metabolism of normal men and the effect of food. With Gephart5 he reports the results of experiments with 7 men with and without food. The basal experiments were made 14 to 18 hours after food. As a basal value the authors used 34.7 calories1 per square meter per hour as the average heat production of fasting normal men between 20 and 50 years of age. After giving 200 grams of dextrose or its equivalent in commercial glucose on 2 days subsequent to the fasting experiments, it was found that this amount caused an average increase of 12.5 per cent in the heat production during the first 3 to 6 hours and that 100 grams caused an average increase of 9 per cent. A casein meal, with 10.5 grams nitrogen, increased the metabolism 12 per cent, and 725 grams of beef, with almost 24 grams of nitrogen, increased it 22 per cent.

1Johansson, Skand. Arch. f. Physiol., 1908, 21, p. 1.

2Howland, Trans. 15th Internat. Cong. Hyg. and Demogr., 1913, 2, sect. 2, p. 438.

3Bergmark, Skand. Arch. f. Physiol., 1914-15, 32, p. 355.

4Bergonie, Rev. Sci. (Paris), 1915, 53, p. 138.

5Gephart and Du Bois, Arch. Intern. Med., 1915, 15, p. 835.

Gephart And Du Bois, 1916

In a continuation of the calorimeter experiments at the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology, Gephart and Du Bois2 report 3 experiments with one subject, 1 experiment after 79 grams of olive oil, and 2 experiments after 115 grams of commercial glucose. The basal value for these determinations was obtained 2 days after the 3 experiments were completed. The authors state that their subject "1 to 4 hours after 115 grams of commercial glucose (the equivalent of 100 grams dextrose) showed an average metabolism 11 per cent higher than the basal determination two days later." Little increase in the metabolism was noted after the 79 grams of olive oil.

Kopciowski, 1916

Using the somewhat cumbersome Burgi apparatus, which was designed primarily for experiments during walking, Kopciowski3 measured the metabolism on himself in 10-minute experiments before and after food in both the lying and sitting positions; only the carbon-dioxide production was determined. In 13 experiments without food, with the subject in the lying position, he found the average carbon-dioxide production to be 4.557 grams per 10 minutes; after dinner this increased 17 per cent. In 4 experiments without food, with the subject in the sitting position, the carbon-dioxide production was 4.687 grams per 10 minutes; in 17 experiments after breakfast or dinner this was increased to an average of 5.248 grams of carbon dioxide, or an increase of 12 per cent. Without oxygen measurements it is obvious that no corrections can be made for alterations in the character of the katabolism.

Aub And Du Bois, 1917

A significant series of experiments on dwarfs and legless men with the Russell Sage calorimeter was made by Aub and Du Bois4 to study the so-called specific dynamic action of protein. The subjects were given a meal of 660 grams of lean beefsteak containing approximately 23 to 25 grams of nitrogen. The investigators laid special emphasis upon the excretion of sulphur. They state that the increase in metabolism following the meat diet was larger for a legless man and for an achondroplastic dwarf with very small arms and legs and normal trunk than for three normal controls of greater weight and greater surface area. They accordingly conclude that the intensity of the specific dynamic action is not proportional to the mass of the musculature, and suggest that it may be due to a greater concentration of amino-acids in the blood flowing to the muscles or to the presence of a liver which, in proportion to the size of the organism, is relatively larger than the normal.

1Using the Meeh formula. Subsequently the Du Bois linear formula increased this value. 2Gephart and Du Bois, Arch. Intern. Med., 1916, 17, p. 902; Cornell Univ. Med. Bull., 1917, 6, p. 48. 3Kopciowski, Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol., 1916,163, p. 247. 4Aub and Du Bois, Arch. Intern. Med., 1917, 19, p. 840.