This two hundred and eighty-eight page work is a laborious study of seventeen obese and ten underweight patients. The diagnostic categories into which the conditions noted were placed included Fröhlich's syndrome, diencephalohypophysial obesity, thyroid obesity, essential obesity, essential thinness, thyroid thinness (hyperthyroidism) and Simmonds' disease. Estimations were made of the basal metabolic rate, respiratory quotient, specific dynamic action of several test meals, dextrose tolerance, lipoid tolerance, salt and water metabolism, effect of work on the respiratory quotient and hyperglycemia and effect of insulin, epinephrine and various hormone preparations. Unfortunately no comparative values for normal controls are given, and frequently the method employed is not named. Among the data are several curious values, for instance, values for the respiratory quotient of 1.03 and 0.63. The data for specific dynamic action and the effect of various drugs are irregular.
The conclusions are that the metabolic discrepancies responsible for obesity are either secondary