Studies of Metabolism

In contradistinction to the uniformly negative results obtained by those who have studied the influence of the spleen on metabolism are the observations of Richet ( I ) , which seem to indicate that in order to maintain the weight of a splenectomized dog a much larger amount of food is required than is the case with a normal dog. Richet's studies suggested to us a possible explanation of certain contradictory and confusing results which have been obtained in this laboratory during a lengthy study of the influence of diet upon the anemia which follows removal of the spleen. Unfortunately, however, Richet investigated only the weight of the animals in relation to the amount of food given and did not attempt a general study of metabolism. Moreover, a study of the literature of this subject shows that although a very complete metabolism study has been made by Paton (2), who decided that the spleen has no importance in metabolism, no one has made metabolic studies after splenectomy in animals in a state of nitrogen equilibrium. We therefore undertook the present investigation in the hope of throwing some light upon the dietary studies to which we have referred, and also, if possible, to clear up the apparent discrepancy between the results of Richet and of Paton.