Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-18

to the effect that in using up energy the
body generates heat. The instrument is
so delicate that when man is lying on a
couch within it and raises his hand 10
scratch his head a change of temperature
is registered. the heat causing it having
been generated by the lifting Of the hand
Now. in this calorimeter men are regu-
larry put and kept for days and weeks.
They take their meals within its narrow
walls, and make down couch and sleep
there at night. They are given regular
courses in various diets. and accurate
records are kept of the food administered.
At the end of a given period a very ac-
curate measure of the amount of energy
produced by a given diet is to be had
Certainly in the end ii will be possible to
compare the energy generating power of
any food with its competitors. It's power
production may be measured as accu-
rately as may that of a Shovelful of coal
burned and tested.
There is DR. II. H. Bunzel. for instance.
whose chief interest in life is oXidases.
There are not great many men in the
world who ever heard of oxidases but
DR.. Bunzel knows them coming and go
ing. asleep or awake. Every housewife
every day witnesses the workings of these
oxidases but knows them not. When she
pees an Irish potato the exposed sur
faces of that potato soon become black.
This is the work of oXidases. When she
bakes her bread it is the OXidases that
make it turn brown. Oxidases make all
the difference between white wine and
red. Likewise do they make the grass
green in the spring.
Now these oxidases are certain chemi
cal substances that are in all sorts of
plant stuffs. 1t is their presence which
makes these materials take up oxygen
from the air. This taking up of oxygen
is a very important thing. 1t has certain
very marked effects upon the objects TAX
ing it up. These effects cannot be pro-
duced without OxidaseS being present. To
get clear insight into such processes as
these it is necessary to have a method by
which the quantity of these Oxidases In
a given plant tissue can be measured
These oXidases are strange and elusive
chemical substances and as yet very little
understood. DR.. Bunzel has, however. in
vented device which will measure the
amount in which they are present. This
is nightly important scientifically be-
cause il enables the scientist to forecast
the ease with which the substances pres
ent in the tissues consume oxygen. There
is the sugar beet plant, for instance, the
growing of which is such an important
industry out west
There is something the matter with a
lot of these sugar beet plants. The tops
of them curl up and become defective.
inferior and the sugar beet crop is great
ly reduced. One of the troubles with SUI
gar beet plants is that they have too
many oxdases and therefore overndulge
in the matter of oxygen. So has the
man of science put his finger upon a
small fact that is of large commercial
Importance. So may he turn his findings
over to the other men of science whose
province it is to apply them and so may
these men go out and curtail the oXidases
of the sugar beet and thus play a very
important part in keeping the price of
that staple down below cents a pound.
DIR. E. c. Schroeder is the keeper of a
building which is given over entirely to
rats. In tier after tier the cages in this
building rise to the ceiling In every cage
are many rats. Every rat has family
tree of many generations. which is
curately known. All these rats originated
from two families that were in the begin
ming strikingly unlike. One Of these was
the ordinary gray rat. while the other
was the so-called hooded rat-one that is
white with black head.
These two rats were croSS-bred, and
the object in maintaining this rat apart
ment is to ascertain what proportion of
the peculiar traits of each occur in the
generations that follow. This means that