The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1912-12-20
Doctors at Carnegie Laboratory
Convinced High Cost of Liv-
ing Is Near Solution
THERMOMETER TELLS
HOW FUEL Is BURNING
Air Caught at Outlets and An
alyzed to Find Quantity
Of Oxygen Consumed


to determine the heating properties
OF various foods. The work is going
on In the Carnegie laboratory OF the
University and Bellevue hospital
Medical Colleges at No 33s East
/. Twenty-sixth-st. DR.. Graham Rusk.
OF Cornell University Medical Col
lege and DR.. Eugene Dubois, Of
Bellevue, are conducting the work.
AS food Is the fuel that runs the
machinery OF the body the scientists
wish to learn positively how the en-
terprise of human life may be most
economically and most efficiently
run. The apparatus they are using
for the purpose is known as a
respiration calorimeter, the invention
Of Profs. w. o. Atwater and +. G..
Benedict. Of Wesleyan. They made
81 experiments with five persons be-
fore they were able to announce yes
terday that the last trial with the
fifth man promises definite and prac-
tical results.
This man has nearly completed a
stay OF 10 days in the calorimeter,
shut on from the outside world ex-
cept by telephone, following instruc-
tons by wire from the doctors on
the outside. The air he breathes is
fed into the room by a device that
will admit II fresh and of a temper
atufe SO even as NOT 10 affect Their
mometer that records variations so
minute as Thousand of one
degree. When the man exercises, the
thermometer tells, the story OF the
rising temperature OF his body. II
is said that II he slTclld become
angry or highly excited from any
cause the mercury would probably
break its containing bulb.
Food Is passed within through a
sectional tube. When a gate closes
on one section an inner gate opens
into another. Transit through three
or four OF theso locked chambers
frees the food of all influence from
{. the outer air. II reaches the inmate
OF the. calorimeter perfectly guarded
from extraneous effects.
Id order that the experiments
might be faithfully made and the
doctors might feel sure of no inside
jOckeying the men trusted to go
within have all been medical stu
dents, as intent as the doctors them
selves in obtaining absolutely cor
rect results. Four Of them failed to
meet the requirements, which the
fifth has exactly hit.
The interior OF the chamber meas
ures ten feet by six. II contains
for the comfort Of the inmate bed.
a table, chairs and books. There
are also washing facilities. In adj
dition to the thermometer, which by
means OF electric connections, tells
those watching outside of tempera-
ture variations. there is a stationary
bicycle, for exercise at intervals re-
quired.
When the inmate rises in the
morning he is expected TO leave the
bed In leisurely fashion. not to hurry
while dressing. and when he walks
he must do II lightly and with short
steps The Thermometer will tell on
him if he disobeys.
Next comes breakfast, which has
been weighed and noted in detail
outside and which reaches him in
sterilized Jars. He must eat slowly
and masticate well. The thermome-
ter informs the doctors outside how
the food fuel Is burning. They can
figure, to a nicely the conclusive
quality of the contents Of the steril-
lied bottles they have passed within.
When the human furnace is burn
ing with steady glow, a sign that
digestion has worked well. the in
mate receives word TO exercise on his
wheel Until then he had been
free TO read or write after eating.
Those outside meanwhile were pre-
pairing to make accurate records OF
the fuel consumption during exer-
else on the bicycle.
BY means of electric and other
delicate devices they are able not
only to measure the quantity OF air
introduced into the chamber through
the period OF exercise. but also to
analyze the air so that they know
exactly its degree OF purity. AS this
same air energies from the chamber
outlets the outsiders catch and meas
IRE the carbon dioxide exhaled by
the inmate. take accurate note OF the
water vapor he throws of In per-
spiration during his exercise and
they can tell to- the smallest atom
the quantity OF oxygen burned by
the inside man to keep his furnace
nues clear. He quits bicycling at
signal from the telephone bell.
The morning programme Is repeat
, ed I'm the afternoon with variations
in the item of food. Diet consump-
ton has been found to AFFECT the
thermometer so markedly that the
doctors are giving themselves the
widest possible range, consistent al
ways with economy and energizing
properties. Dinner arrives in the
same form as breakfast. bottled and,
sterilized.
All the student within has to do
Is 10 digest II and let the thermon,-
eter report its heating effects. He
nav read or write. walk softly and
ouietly about his cell and talk with
his friends outside II they promise
not TO make him laugh too heartily
with their latest stories or say any
thing to excite him otherwise.
Friends who call him up while he Is
astride the bicycle should not sup
pose he r. out II he fails 10 answer
the telephone. No matter II the
messare n urgent he cannot leave