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UNIVERSITY OF LOUVAIN
DEPARTMENT OF METABOLIC RESEARCH
Exposed to the north, so that the daily variations of temperature are reduced to a minimum, is situated the department of metabolic research where are employed different methods of a gas-analytic or gas-volumetric nature. It is here that a great deal of work is done on basal metabolism. For this reason the laboratory is quiet. The department comprises two rooms, one of which has three boxes, separated by curtains so that the patient on the bed cannot see what is happening outside the box, where the recording apparatus is placed.
We have here at our disposal (a) an apparatus for the determination of basal metabolism according to Krogh, measuring the consumption of oxygen; (6) a Tissot spirometer with recording apparatus, allowing us to determine C02 production, 02 consumption, and the value of the respiration quotient after air analysis; (c) and the following apparatus for analysis : an analytic apparatus of Haldane, small pattern; an analytic apparatus of Haldane, large pattern; an analytic apparatus of Gräve; a diaferometer of Noyons, and an interferometer of Zeiss.
Outdoor air is conducted to the different apparatus through a large main tube with different lateral tubes. The heating system in the room can be varied on a large scale in order to study the influence of temperature on the organic combustion of living beings.
TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT
The technical department of the laboratory comprises the following rooms: (a) A mechanical workshop (No. 15) furnished with: a lathe of moderate size, a small lathe for precision work, such as is employed by watchmakers, a vertical and horizontal fraising-machine, a very small fraising-apparatus, a bore machine, an automatic metal-saw, and a nickel-bath. All instruments are driven by a central axis. (b) A workshop for glass-making (No. 16) w7ith bellows and with a smoothing machine, (c) A storeroom for different materials. (No. 17).	(d) A testing room,
(No. 14) where is also placed the apparatus for vacuum and pressure.
There are twro reservoirs for pressure, each with a capacity of 1,800 liters and also two reservoirs for vacuum each of 1,500 liters capacity. We employ for vacuum and pressure the same horizontal pump, driven by a motor of 3.5 h.p. This pump gives 27 cubic meters an hour and 5.4 cubic meters on a pressure of four atmospheres.
A system of valves and a big three-way stop-cock moved by a handle allows the employment of the pump as a pressure or a vacuum pump, (e) A room (No. 13) designed for the distribution of different currents and for the transformation of triphasic alternating current by means of a motor-generator of
the Electric Works of Charleroi (the three phasic current after transformation supplies the storage-battery, which is placed in the next room). (/) A battery-room (No. 12), where is placed a battery Tudor of 60 elements of 150 ampere-hours. In the same place are charged the smaller accumulators used everywhere in the laboratory. (g) The refrigerating room contains a Brown-Boveri refrigerating apparatus with a small refrigerator box and small refrigerator room of the following interior dimensions, 2 meters deep, 1.80 meters wide, and 2.40 meters high, with insulated double walls, the space between the walls being filled with sawdust. The room is cooled by a circulating stream of brine which is cooled in turn by the refrigerating apparatus.
DEPARTMENT OF CALORIMETRIC RESEARCH
In the basement of the Institute the end of the southern wing has been reserved for calorimetric research.
Fig. 11.—Calorimeter Room
We have there a large space 13 by 13.25 meters divided by a wall into two parts of the same breadth but of different depth. The wall protects the interior part which is 10 by 13.25 meters, against direct radiation of sunlight. The smaller room, which is 2.69 by 13.25 meters, is designed for analytic work in relation to calorimetric research; the large room contains our different types of calorimeters.
We elaborated three types for our research work, all based on a differential principle: (a) a small calorimeter for small animals such as guinea-pigs, pigeons,