Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 66.djvu/162

158 epinephrin? Where is there a more active agent in modifying the nutritional processes of the body than the iodine-containing constituent 01 the thyroid, the iodothyrin. These may truly be counted as representing a type of substances manufactured or secreted primarily for the physiological effect they are capable of exerting; but what about the host of other substances present in the body, many of them simple products of katabolism? May they not have some marked physiological property that if known would serve a sufficient excuse for their formation? Or, may they not possess some hidden or obscure property which if once understood would make clear a secondary or subsidiary function of no small import for the maintenance of physiological equilibrium, or for the welfare of the body? Many suggestions and some facts present themselves, illustrating how direct and indirect influences may be exerted, all pointing toward the harmonious action and interdependence in function of many of the substances formed in the body. Some, however, undoubtedly have more or less of a toxic action, especially when formed in excessive or undue amounts. Thus, the alloxuric bases seemingly cause fever when injected into the circulation or taken per os, and according to the recent observations of Mandel there is a very striking relationship between the quantity of alloxuric bases eliminated in the urine and the temperature of the body in cases of aseptic fevers, indicating that these substances, with possibly other incomplete products of tissue metabolism, are important factors in the production of febrile temperature. We may confidently expect that a thorough study of the physiological action of all the varied katabolic products formed in the body will result in a decided expansion of our knowledge regarding the part these substances may play in normal and abnormal metabolism, and in nutrition in general.

Just here, reference may be made to the many problems in the broad field of nutrition that confront the physiological chemist of the present day. The maintenance of life on a sound physiological basis is one of the practical problems in physiological chemistry, and its solution is not yet attained. We need fuller knowledge regarding the part played by the different nitrogenous food-stuffs, the relative physiological value of animal and vegetable proteid, the relative value of fats and carbohydrates as nutrients aside from their different calorific power, and by no means least a fuller and more accurate knowledge of the true physiological needs of the body for proteid foods. Our present dietetic standards are absolutely false and valueless. Our present conception of the physiological needs of the body is altogether faulty and distorted. Our ideas of the rate and extent of proteid metabolism