A Method of Recording Changes in Body Weight Which Occur Within Short Intervals of Time.

Exact determinations of the rate at which metabolism is occurring within the body are of great practical as well as scientific interest. It is doubtful whether any method can be devised which will give more accurate results than those obtained from a subject living in a respiratory chamber, but this method in its most complete form requires an expensive plant, can not be used in the case of the sick and fails to give changes which occur within short intervals of time. In the hope of developing a method which, even though less exact, might be sufficiently accurate to meet practical requirements, and give information concerning changes in metabolism which occur from minute to minute, the work recorded in this paper was undertaken. Higley, working with Bowen in the physiological laboratory of the University of Michigan, found that the movements of a delicate balance could be recorded on the blackened