The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-03-27
CUT OFF FROM THE WORLD.
IFrom the New York World

IFrom the New York World.
Emil Osterberg has finished his term
of Punishment from home and all that
makes men willing to live, and at 10
o'clock tonight he emerged from the
respirat alton calorimeter in which he has
spent the last ten days.
In this cage of glass and wood and
iron he has lived 240 hours cut off from
all his usual activities and empIoyments
and communicating with mankind only
through telephone and by signs
through the pane of glass that is let in
to one side of his air-tight, dramatically
sealed cell
Yet he was all this time happy and
contented. He has gained flesh under
the regimen to which he was subjected
and is in better condition than after
previous experiments. He came out of
his aseptic, nOn-bacillic cell as cheer
fully as bear emerging from his an
nual Information. Osterberg is a social
martyr to science. That is his business
He earns his living at it. The people
of the United States and the common
wealth of Connecticut pay him a fair
wage, in return for which he frequent
ly undergoes the pains of secluson
from society for ten days at a time.
So far as food, sleep and warmth ex-
ercise and general bodily comfort are
concerned, he is happy. His martyr
dom consists in existing for ten days at
a time absolutely cut off from customa-
ry daily routine. The ordinary citizen
would be bored to death, the nervous
man driven to madness. Osterberg is
neither nervous nor ordinary. He has
nerves of lead.
When he stepped out of the cage to-
night he summed up the hopes, fears,
aspirations desires, plans of the last 10
days by saying:
wal, I tink 1 go home now and take
a gOOt BATH
Osterberg is 35 years old, 5 feet 10
inches tall, weighs IT'S pounds, blue
eyed, fair haired, and with a blond mus
tache. He is as Unconditional as a car
go of fireproOf brick
The idea of the experiments IS to
take an average, normal man, put him
in a position that cuts him off from all
influences save those due to effort
which can be absolutely controlled by
the experimenters, and then feed him.
make him do certain work, and observe
with mathematical measurement the
effect of certain foods in enabling him
to do the appointed work.
This time Osterberg has been tried on
food rich in sugar and starch. Prof.
w. o. Atwater, the director of the ex-
periments, assisted by ten trained OBJ
servers, has experimental with Oster-
berg for the last ten days. The man
has been placid during that period. He
slept as long as he chose every night, on
a narrow but comfortable cot that was
folded up during the day against the
wall. His starchy and sugary foods
were prepared with as much skill in
cooking could be found anywhere.
His meals were carefully weighed,
then showed into an air lock that COM
this lock all common air was exhausted
and chemically pure air admitted. When
the signal was given Osterberg opened
the lock from the inside and drew in
his food.
After proper rest for digestion, the
man rode an ordered number of miles
on a home trainer bicycle, or made a
certain number of movements with
dumb bells of prescribed weight He
applied an instrument and reported his
heart beats. At intervals he took his
own temperature and reported.
When not actually exercising or eat
ing or sleeping he lounged on the cot
or sat in his chair or spent his time
reading books and daily newspapers.
Every movement he made was recorded.
The very air he exhaled from his nos
trils was scientifically caught, frozen by
the ammonia process, analysed, and it's
constituents weighed.
Prof Atwater and his assistants
worked in shifts as laborious1y and en-
Enthusiastically as though digging gold in
the Klondike.
Osterberg's alright cell was less than
nine feet square. The data about him
will not be tabulated for a month.
Then Prof. Atwater will report to the
United States agricultural department
at Washington on the value of starchy
and sugary foods.