PHYSIOLOGICAL ONTOGENY : A. CHICKEN EMBRYOS. XII. THE METABOLISM AS A FUNCTION OF AGE.

1. The previous findings that the rate of metabolism per gm. of body weight decreased with age, and that during the incubation period catabolism was mostly at the expense of fat, have been confirmed. 2. These determinations of the rate of oxygen uptake have afforded more precise values for the catabolic rate and thus permit estimations of the changes with age in the rate of absorption.     

PHYSIOLOGICAL ONTOGENY : A. CHICKEN EMBRYOS. XI. THE PH,CHLORIDE, CARBONIC ACID,AND PROTEIN CONCENTRATIONS IN THE TISSUES AS FUNCTIONS OF AGE.

Investigations of the chicken embryo during its incubation period show that: 1. The pH and the chloride concentration of the tissues decrease with age; the fall is most rapid between the 10th and the 13th days of incubation. 2. The concentration of total CO₂ increases with age. This fact is not considered inconsistent with a possible decrease in the concentration of active bicarbonate ions, since the increased CO₂ might well be the result of absorption of calcium carbonate from the shell and its precipitation as bone in the embryo. 3. The concentration of protein increases with age, especially between the 12th and the 16th days of incubation. The fact that the electrolytes change with the greatest rapidity at about 11½ days, the protein at 14 days, and the fat at 16½ days might be taken as a demonstration of the phenomenon of unequal development in the realm of biochemical differentiation and consequently that some notion of order, depending upon molecular reactivity and mobility would describe the process better than any concept of dynamic equilibrium.