Early American studies on respiration calorimetry |
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Authors: | Aaron J. Ihde Jerry F. Janssen |
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Affiliation: | (1) University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA;(2) Present address: Dept. of Chemistry, Eisenhower College, 13148 Seneca Falls, N.Y., USA |
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Abstract: | Summary W. C. Atwater, student of American food materials, transplanted respiration calorimetry to the United States, following his experience with the subject in the German laboratories of Volt and Rubner. He began construction, in 1892 with the collaboration ofE. B. Rosa, of an instrument capable of accurate measurement of energy and material balances in a human being. This represents one of the first examples in America of the funding and construction of a large but sensitive scientific instrument and its operation by a team of skilled specialists.Atwater's group quickly established that the first law of thermodynamics was applicable to man. His associate,F. G. Benedict laid the foundations for application of respiration relationships to the understanding of basal metabolism in human beings both in health and disease.G. Lusk andE. F. Du Bois greatly extended the clinical aspects of calorimetry.Animal calorimetry had its origin in Lavoisier's laboratory, its resurgence withRegnault andReiset, and its major successes in Germany in the laboratories of Voit at Munich and Rubner in Marburg and Berlin. The vigorous development in America at the turn of the century was an extension of the studies in Germany. Every prominent member of the American school of calorimetrists was either educated with Voit or Rubner or in regular contact through correspondence and travel.Presented at the Conference on the Historical Development of Bioenergetics held at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on October 11–13, 1973, Boston, Mass. The support of the National Science Foundation, grant GS-27505, for this study is gratefully acknowledged. |
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