Diseases of metabolism and of the blood : animal parasites, toxicology / ed. by Richard C. Cabot ... An authorized translation from "Die deutsche klinik" under the general editorial supervision of Julius L. Salinger, M. D. With one colored plate and fifty-eight illustrations in the text.

  • Richard Clarke Cabot
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of metabolism and of the blood : animal parasites, toxicology / ed. by Richard C. Cabot ... An authorized translation from "Die deutsche klinik" under the general editorial supervision of Julius L. Salinger, M. D. With one colored plate and fifty-eight illustrations in the text. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

    69/684 (page 49)
    CONCLUDING REMARKS In the pursuit of knowledge regarding metabolism in pathological condi- tions, also in the nutrition of the sick, in the last twenty year-, ir would be unjust to ignore the importance of the dynamic point of view in the inves- tigation of the processes of metabolism, which to-day dominates pathology as well as physiology. On the other hand, however, we cannot be too careful—when reiving upon a law based upon the combustion value of individual food products—in con- sidering the quantitative exclusively, or even to such an extent as has been the custom of the average studenl of metabolism in the las! few years. Primarily it is practical experience at the bedside which should dictate the diet, and not theoretical knowledge of food requirement, however well founded. The patient cannot be nourished with calories alone, and it would certainly restrict the further progress of our knowledge of the laws of nutri- tion if we should consider the caloric value of the individual foods more, and the individual digestibility and tolerance, the manner of preparation, etc., of foods less. All honor to the calory reckoning of the food—it is of inestimable value in the treatment of chronic diseases—but we must beware of carrying it too far. In practice we have a sufficiently well-founded dietetic treatment, espe- cially in acute disease, without calory reckonings. But apart from tins limitation of its value in practical dietetics, which is not to be misunderstood, the purely dynamic conception of processes of metab- olism has not always influenced our scientific understanding and research in these problems in a fortunate way. CTpon one of the first pages of Boppe-Seyler's Physiologic Chemistry, these words art; italicized: The process of life of the organism i-. in the main, a complete mystery/*' When we read, however, in modern clinical researches in metabolism, that in the form of albumin, fat or carbohydrates only such and such calories are to be allowed in the diet, ur are to he eliminated from the diet, in order to Increase or to diminish the proteids or fat of the body, or definitely to influ- ence the activity of the organism in tin- or that direction, we mighl almosl believe that the veil had long been lifted from the mystery, while in reality we are a- far from a solution as we were in the period in which Hoppe-Seyler wrote t he foregoing words. In the modern pathology of metabolism the view i- constantly becoming more prominent that the calory carriers of the introduced food are -imply decomposed in the daily metabolism of the body without having become <'» integral constituent of the organism. This prevent- as from studying the greal problem of life, and the investigator gets his inspiration not from the hope of a Bpeedy solution of the problem but purely in the exhilaration of Bteady work and Bteady progress upon the path already trodden; still the goal itself must never he losl Bighl of. This, however, is the case if tin- view i- accepted a- final that the m] Ö