of albumen—below which the organism would perish. Voit had found 118 grammes of albumen necessary for the average adult man weighing 70 kilos. This figure is certainly too high. The Japanese doctors, Mori?], Tsuboï, and Murato, have shown that a considerable portion of the population of Japan is content with a diet much poorer in nitrogen, and suffers no inconvenience. The Abyssinians, according to Lapicque, ingest, on the average, only 67 grammes of albumen per day. A Scandinavian physiologist, Siven, experimenting on himself, found that he could reduce the ration of albumen necessary to the maintenance and equilibrium of the organism to the lowest figures which have been yet reached—namely, from 35 to 46 grammes a day. These experiments, however, must be confirmed and interpreted. Besides, it is important to point out that the most advantageous ration of albumen requires to be a good deal above the strictly sufficient quantity.
It only remains to refer to several other recent researches. The most important of many are those published by M. Chauveau, on the reciprocal transformation of the immediate principles in the organism according to the conditions of its functioning and the circumstances of its activity. To deal with these researches with as much detail as they deserve, we must study the physiology of muscular contraction and of movement—that is to say, of muscular energetics.
