All investigators who have attempted to carry on metabolism experiments in hospitals have experienced more or less difficulty in the administration of the diets and the collection of the excreta. The necessity for a special metabolism ward became evident as soon as it was decided to build a respiration calorimeter in Bellevue Hospital. Through the generosity of the trustees of the hospital and the attending staff of the Second Medical Division a small ward holding four or five beds was placed in charge of the medical director of the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology,1 who was also one of the junior members of the attending staff of the hospital. He is directly responsible to the attending physician for the welfare of the patients, and there has always been a spirit of active cooperation between the small metabolism ward and the large medical wards of the service
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