As regards fat metabolism Geelmuyden1o is inclined to the opinion that oxybutyric acid, aceto-acetic acid and acetone are normal metabolism products derived from members higher up in the series.

As regards dextrose Stoklasa2o announces that all animal and vegetable cells contain enzymes capable of converting dextrose into alcohol and carbon dioxide. He21 also finds a ferment in animal tissues able to convert sugar into lactic acid. He quotes Oppenheimer's experiment, showing that whereas fresh normal blood yielded little lactic acid on standing at 37° C., much greater amounts were formed if dextrose was added. He believes that this lactic acid is subsequently converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Embden22 comes to the conclusion that blood sugar perfused through the liver may be broken up into lactic acid. It has been previously shown that lactic acid could be converted into dextrose and it is a curious fact that this same dextrose may pass through the lactic-acid stage on its way to oxidation.

A. R. Mandel23 in the writer's laboratory has shown that lactic acid disappears from the blood and urine in phosphorus poisoning if diabetes be induced. Here the mother substance of the accumulating lactic acid is removed in the urine. Any considerable production of alcohol in tissue metabolism, while possible, does not seem probable in light of the known physiological action of the substance.

12 Geelmuyden, Zeitschrift für physiologische

Chem., 1904, Bd. 41, p. 128.

Stoklasa, Centralblatt für Physiologie, 1903, Bd. 17, p. 465.

21 Stoklasa, Jelinck und Cerny, Centralblatt für Physiologie, 1903, Bd. 16, p. 712.

Embden, 'Verhandlungen der 6sten Internationalen physiologen Congress,' Centralblatt für Physiologie, 1905, Bd. 18, p. 832.

23 Mandel, Proceedings of the Am. Physiol.. Society,' American Journal of Physiology, 1905, Vol. 13, p. xvi.

Rubner gives the following theory of metabolism: Living proteid, through the vibrations of its particles, metabolizes the food substances. The action resembles catalysis. The energy liberated reacts on the particles of protoplasm, causing a change in their position and a cessation of metabolism. The particles then return to their original position and the cycle begins again. These processes require a fixed amount of energy. Rubner does not give his reasons for believing in this rhythm of excitation and rest.

The quantity of the combustion depends on the power of the cells to metabolize (Voit). In the resting state this metabolic power of the cells is influenced by the 'law of skin area' (Rubner). Temperature (cooling or warming) and nerve excitation (muscle work, chemical regulation) affect the power of the cells to metabolize, perhaps through an increase in the oscillation of the particles, an effect which is in turn. maintained at the expense of the energy derived from metabolism. Living protoplasm metabolizes in accord with its necessities at the time, and never more. Large quantities of nutrient materials furnished will not increase cell metabolism. be ingested above the requirement for the organism, any excess will be retained in the body. The kind of metabolism depends upon the constitution of the fluid feeding the cells, and whether proteid, carbohydrates or fats have been ingested.

If food

Each ingested foodstuff exerts a specific dynamic action (Rubner). At a temperature of 33° C. the ingestion of the starvation requirement of energy in the form. of fat increases the requirement for energy ten per cent., carbohydrates raises it five per cent., proțeids thirty per cent. In other words, in the case of meat, in order to obtain calorific equilibrium about 140 calories

24 Rubner, Von Leyden's Handbuch der Ernähungstherapic,' 1903, p. 78.

must be ingested instead of 100, if that represents the starvation the starvation requirement. Rubner25 explains that the cells of the body do not require more energy after meat ingestion than in starvation, but that the heat produced by a preliminary cleavage of proteid into dextrose on the one hand, and into a nitrogen containing rest on the other, while yielding heat to the body does not furnish the actual energy for the vital activities of the protoplasm. This is furnished principally by the dextrose derived from the proteid. Although it is necessary to abandon the older theory which pronounces glycogen (or dextrose) a direct cleavage product of proteid, still the explanation of Rubner remains tenable if interpreted in the newer light. If the energy requirement of the cell remains constant at 100, even after the ingestion of 140 calories of proteid, then 71.4 per cent. of the total heat value of the proteid is the quantity actually used for the vital processes. Since it has been shown in the writer's laboratory that meat proteid yields 58 per cent. of dextrose in metabolism, it may be calculated that 52.5 per cent. of the total energy of proteid may be available for the cells in the form of sugar. A balance of 19 per cent. must be obtained from other compounds, while 28.5 per cent. of the total heat value is wasted as heat without ever having been brought into the service of the life processes of the cells. Perhaps this 28.5 per cent. of heat loss represents the quantity produced by the cleavage of proteid into amino bodies and the denitrogenization of these radicles.

The constancy of the energy requirement in metabolism makes difficult the explanation of the action of the various ferments found in the body. These are of two varieties, hydrolytic and oxidizing, but these from the very principles of our Rubner, Gesetze des Energieverbrauchs,' 1902,

p. 380.

knowledge must be subservient to the requirement of the living cells, and not themselves masters of the situation, as, for example, they are in the autolysis of dead tissue. It seems to be the requirement of the mechanism of cell activity which determines metabolism, and not primarily the action of enzymes, whose influence appears to be only intermediary.

Friedenthal26 shows that proteid, colloidal carbohydrates, fats and soaps are not oxidizable in the cellular fluids without previous hydrolytic cleavage. After hydrolysis, however, the oxidases may effect an oxidation of the smaller molecules. The necessity of the hydrolytic ferment is seen in the non-combustion of dextrose after the extirpation of the pancreas, the organ by which the ferment is supplied. Oxygen and the oxidases are present in ample quantity, but the sugar is not burned unless it be broken by its specific ferment. In the meantime the cell avails itself of a compensatory energy supply from other sources. It is impossible to apply anything similar to Ehrlich's side-chain theory to this condition of affairs, for the metabolism does not depend upon the satisfaction of chemical affinities, but rather upon a definite law of utilization of energy equivalents.

However clearly formulated the laws of metabolism may be, and many of them are as fixed and definite as are any laws of physics and chemistry, still the primary cause of metabolism remains a hidden secret of the living bioplasm.

GRAHAM LUSK.

UNIVERSITY AND BELLEVUE
HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE.

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS.

Notes on Anthropoid Apes. By the Hon. WALTER ROTHSCHILD.

This paper, in the last number of the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London

*Friedenthal, Verhandlungen der Berliner Physiologischen Gesellschaft,' Archiv für Physiologie, 1904, p. 371.

(1904, Vol. II., Pt. II., 413-440), is based in the main upon recent studies by Professor Matschie, published in the Sitz. Ges. Naturf. Freunde.

One

A review of the systematic portion of Mr. Rothschild's paper could not be profitably undertaken at present, at least by an American zoologist, for lack of material by which values could be estimated, and still more by reason of the absence from his paper of almost all details in support of its conclusions except a few of dubious significance. The doubt may be expressed, however, whether even the German naturalist, though his material has much exceeded that ever before brought together, has had anything like a sufficient amount to establish the nature and the taxonomic value of many of his characters. point which may be briefly noticed is Matschie's proposal, adopted by Rothschild (p. 413), that the gibbons should form a family, Hylobatidæ, quite apart from the other anthropoids. It appears to me that nothing could be further from sound principles of classification. reason of their somewhat intermediate anatomical structure, the gibbons might, perhaps, be used to break down the separation of anthropoids and old-world monkeys into two families, but they are far too closely allied to the first in all distinctive characters, to be added as a third group in the series.

By

posed to transfer the generic name Simia Linn. from its time-worn association with the orang to the chimpanzees, and to apply to the former the name Pongo Lacép. Now a complete reversal in the relation of a generic and specific name a century and a half old, with the upsetting of all depending nomenclature, should be shown to be unavoidable before it is proposed. Is it so here? The contention is that it results from taking the tenth edition of the 'Systema Naturæ' (1758) as the starting point, instead of the twelfth edition

(1766), for the reason that Simia satyrus of the tenth was based on the Satyrus indicus of Tulpe (1641), which Mr. Rothschild holds to be so unmistakably a chimpanzee that 'we can even distinguish the exact race to which it belongs.'

The whole question, therefore, hangs on the certainty with which this animal can be identified. To me it appears doubtful, as it did to Hartmann, what animal Tulpe really meant. He calls it Satyrus indicus and gives the habitat as 'Africa, Asia.' The 'crinibus nigris' of his description is the one character to distinguish it from the red orang, but it does not serve to distinguish one species of chimpanzee from another, or more than doubtfully from a young gorilla. Turning to Tulpe's figure the zoologist of experience with living anthropoids is likely to recognize much more resemblance to the orang than to the chimpanzee in the head, the small ear, the protuberant paunch, the size of the great toe and in the whole attitude of the animal.

* * *

Linnæus had really never seen any of these apes and his names are based on statements of other authors who were not able to differentiate the red ones of the Oriental region from the black ones of the Ethiopian, and his genus Simia of the tenth edition does not rest surely -to quote the American code upon a designated recognizable species or plate or figure.' In the twelfth edition his Simia satyrus is, without question, the orang, the chief reference being to Edwards's plate 213 (1758), which being colored leaves no doubt as to which animal is figured. The fact is that Simia Linn. is merely a composite of all the monkeys known to that author, and has with others of his genera been imposed upon literature more by reverence for his name than through any exact application borne by them. This being true in many cases, and Simia satyrus of the tenth edition not being certainly identifiable, rather than overturn the whole nomenclature of two genera, or even worse to reverse it, it seems quite within legitimate practice to regard it as a nomen nudum as far as the tenth edition is concerned, and let it take date from its first unquestioned use in the twelfth.

must be ingested instead of 100, if that represents the starvation requirement. Rubner25 explains that the cells of the body do not require more energy after meat ingestion than in starvation, but that the heat produced by a preliminary cleavage of proteid into dextrose on the one hand, and into a nitrogen containing rest on the other, while yielding heat to the body does not furnish the actual energy for the vital activities of the protoplasm. This is furnished principally by the dextrose derived from the proteid. Although it is necessary to abandon the older theory which pronounces glycogen (or dextrose) a direct cleavage product of proteid, still the explanation of Rubner remains tenable if interpreted in the newer light. If the energy requirement of the cell remains constant at 100, even after the ingestion of 140 calories of proteid, then 71.4 per cent. of the total heat value of the proteid is the quantity actually used for the vital processes. Since it has been shown in the writer's laboratory that meat proteid yields 58 per cent. of dextrose in metabolism, it may be calculated that 52.5 per cent. of the total energy of proteid may be available for the cells in the form of sugar. A balance of 19 per cent. must be obtained from other compounds, while 28.5 per cent. of the total heat value is wasted as heat without ever having been brought into the service of the life processes of the cells. Perhaps this 28.5 per cent. of heat loss represents the quantity produced by the cleavage of proteid into amino bodies and the denitrogenization of these radicles.

The constancy of the energy requirement in metabolism makes difficult the explanation of the action of the various ferments found in the body. These are of two varieties, hydrolytic and oxidizing, but these from the very principles of our Rubner, Gesetze des Energieverbrauchs,' 1902,

p. 380.

knowledge must be subservient to the requirement of the living cells, and not themselves masters of the situation, as, for example, they are in the autolysis of dead tissue. It seems to be the requirement of the mechanism of cell activity which determines metabolism, and not primarily the action of enzymes, whose influence appears to be only intermediary.

Friedenthal26 shows that proteid, colloidal carbohydrates, fats and soaps are not oxidizable in the cellular fluids without After hyprevious hydrolytic cleavage. drolysis, however, the oxidases may effect an oxidation of the smaller molecules. The necessity of the hydrolytic ferment is seen in the non-combustion of dextrose after the extirpation of the pancreas, the organ by which the ferment is supplied. Oxygen and the oxidases are present in ample quantity, but the sugar is not burned unless it be broken by its specific ferment. In the meantime the cell avails itself of a compensatory energy supply from other sources. It is impossible to apply anything similar to Ehrlich's side-chain theory to this condition of affairs, for the metabolism does not depend upon the satisfaction of chemical affinities, but rather upon a definite law of utilization of energy equivalents.

However clearly formulated the laws of metabolism may be, and many of them are as fixed and definite as are any laws of physics and chemistry, still the primary cause of metabolism remains a hidden secret of the living bioplasm.

GRAHAM LUSK.

UNIVERSITY AND BELLEVUE HOSPITAL MEDICAL COLLEGE.

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS.

Notes on Anthropoid Apes. By the Hon. WALTER ROTHSCHILD.

This paper, in the last number of the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 2 Friedenthal, 'Verhandlungen der Berliner Physiologischen Gesellschaft,' Archiv für Physiologie, 1904, p. 371.

(1904, Vol. II., Pt. II., 413-440), is based in the main upon recent studies by Professor Matschie, published in the Sitz. Ges. Naturf. Freunde.

One

A review of the systematic portion of Mr. Rothschild's paper could not be profitably undertaken at present, at least by an American zoologist, for lack of material by which values could be estimated, and still more by reason of the absence from his paper of almost all details in support of its conclusions except a few of dubious significance. The doubt may be expressed, however, whether even the German naturalist, though his material has much exceeded that ever before brought together, has had anything like a sufficient amount to establish the nature and the taxonomic value of many of his characters. point which may be briefly noticed is Matschie's proposal, adopted by Rothschild (p. 413), that the gibbons should form a family, Hylobatida, quite apart from the other anthropoids. It appears to me that nothing could be further from sound principles of classification. reason of their somewhat intermediate anatomical structure, the gibbons might, perhaps, be used to break down the separation of anthropoids and old-world monkeys into two families, but they are far too closely allied to the first in all distinctive characters, to be added as a third group in the series.

By

posed to transfer the generic name Simia Linn. from its time-worn association with the orang to the chimpanzees, and to apply to the former the name Pongo Lacép. Now a complete reversal in the relation of a generic and specific name a century and a half old, with the upsetting of all depending nomenclature, should be shown to be unavoidable before it is proposed. Is it so here? The contention is that it results from taking the tenth edition of the 'Systema Naturæ' (1758) as the starting point, instead of the twelfth edition

(1766), for the reason that Simia satyrus of the tenth was based on the Satyrus indicus of Tulpe (1641), which Mr. Rothschild holds to be so unmistakably a chimpanzee that we can even distinguish the exact race to which it belongs.'

The whole question, therefore, hangs on the certainty with which this animal can be identified. To me it appears doubtful, as it did to Hartmann, what animal Tulpe really meant. He calls it Satyrus indicus and gives the habitat as 'Africa, Asia.' The 'crinibus nigris' of his description is the one character to distinguish it from the red orang, but it does not serve to distinguish one species of chimpanzee from another, or more than doubtfully from a young gorilla. Turning to Tulpe's figure the zoologist of experience with living anthropoids is likely to recognize much more resemblance to the orang than to the chimpanzee in the head, the small ear, the protuberant paunch, the size of the great toe and in the whole attitude of the animal.

* *

Linnæus had really never seen any of these apes and his names are based on statements of other authors who were not able to differentiate the red ones of the Oriental region from the black ones of the Ethiopian, and his genus Simia of the tenth edition does not rest surely -to quote the American code-upon 'a designated recognizable species * or plate or figure.' In the twelfth edition his Simia satyrus is, without question, the orang, the chief reference being to Edwards's plate 213 (1758), which being colored leaves no doubt as to which animal is figured. The fact is that Simia Linn. is merely a composite of all the monkeys known to that author, and has with others of his genera been imposed upon literature more by reverence for his name than through any exact application borne by them. This being true in many cases, and Simia satyrus of the tenth edition not being certainly identifiable, rather than overturn the whole nomenclature of two genera, or even worse to reverse it, it seems quite within legitimate practice to regard it as a nomen nudum as far as the tenth edition is concerned, and let it take date from its first unquestioned use in the twelfth.