The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-03-16
Last Night on Conservation of Energy
 in Living Organisms

Last Night on Conservation of Energy in Living Organisms.' Professor W. o. Atwater, of Wesleyan university, whose experiments with his calorimeter on physical phenomena in | living subjects have attracted the atten-
 tion of scientists all over the world, last
 night in the Sheffield course of lectures | in North Sheffield hall gave the result | of his experiments on "The Conserva- | tion of Energy in Living Organisms" Professor Atwater stated the problem
 by the following illustrations: T move
 my arm. The contraction of the muscle involves a certain amount of work. That work represents a transformation of energy. What is that energy? What is its origin? How is it transformed? Do those transformations, as they occur in the living body, under the control of
 mind conform to that same law of the
 conservation of energy which years ago
 was shown to obtain in the inorganic
 world? I suppose most physiologists,
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 law must so apply.
 But what is the principle of the con-
 servation of energy? For our present
 purpose I may put it as follows: En-
 ergy may be changed from one form to
 another. Heat may be changed to me-
 chanical work and mechanical work to
 heat Either of these may be trans
 formed to light or to electrical energy or to chemical energy. These last may
 be transformed into each other or into
 heat or into mechanical work. But in
 all these changes the quantity remains the same. By no means known to man can energy be created or destroyed, or it's total quantity altered
 Professor Atwater then explained his experiments with men in the respira- tion calorimeter of Wesleyan university in order to prove the action of this law in the human body. He said:
 'The task before us is to measure, weigh and analyze all of the food and drink received by the body and all of the products, solid, liquid and gaseous, which it gives off. Still further, we have to measure the energy that is la tent in the food and that which is given | off from the body in various forms. We l have to compare the income and the outgo of material and energy"
 This task is accomplished in the res piration calorimeter It's main feature | is q copper walled chamber, seven feet l long, four feet wide and six and one half feet high. In this room the man [ who is the subject of the experiment. < lives eats, drinks reads, writes works and sleeps. He has a bed, table and | chair which can be folded up when not in use; books, newspapers, writing ma terials; scales to weigh himself; and a stationery bicycle and other appliances for muscular work. The chamber is with the outside air by de- vices for ventilat ting. There are means for measuring and sampling the air that passes in and out and for measuring and regulating the temperature. There are also arrangements for passing in food and for removing the solid and iquid excreta of the body
 The individual experiments usually asst three or four days and nights, but several are often carried on without break for nine, or even twelve days
 Experiments covering ninety-thresI lays and nights with different men re- -laled that the average daily income re- ,eived by the body was 2,71S and the lverage outgo 2,719 calories per day Atwater does not think nine y-three days a time long enough to prove the case absolutely. But" said e 'it does seem to me that those re- ults make it extremely probable that he amount of energy given off from the . odies of these men did agree with the mounts that were latent in the food nd body material which was oxidized. his is what the law of the conservation energy demands"
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