The Fuel of Life: Experimental Studies in Normal and Diabetic Animals.

This series of four lectures represents a vigorous, healthy protest against some of the orthodox views on metabolism — always a good sign in science as well as in other fields. Macleod and his school aim particularly to show the possibility of the formation of dextrose from fatty acids, and if they do not prove their point of view conclusively, they display ingenuity in, and diversity of, experimentation and a keenly critical analysis of the work of others as well as their own.

In the first lecture the chemistry of muscular contraction is thoroughly reviewed. The many loopholes possible in the determination of the respiratory quotient are honestly presented so that one feels that the scientific literature would be far better off if all those dealing with respiratory quotients would familiarize themselves with this chapter. One of the important conclusions, based on experiments on depancreatized and hepatectomized animals, is that