A study of the effect of overfeeding on the protein metabolism of man

THE main series of experiments which are described in this paper really comprise an investigation of the effects of moderate overfeeding on the protein meta- bolism of man, although they owe their origin to the untoward results which were obtained during a re-examination of certain observations which had come to our knowledge and which had indicated that a difference existed between the nutritive values for the adult of the proteins of raw and boiled milks. The dietary method which was adopted in these experiments was of the super- imposition type, and as the work proceeded it became obvious that retention phenomena of an unexpected nature were occurring and were of such an order as to disturb seriously our interpretation of this type of experiment in dietary studies. Thus the original design of the investigation was submerged in an attempt to elucidate these remarkable phenomena and in the process some fresh light has been shed on an old and largely forgotten chapter of physiology in which the observations of Voit [1869], v. Noorden's pupils [Milroy, 1907],