Henry Prentiss Armsby

Henry P. Armsby Henry Prentiss Armsby (September 21, 1853 – October 19, 1921) was an American Agricultural chemistry agricultural chemist, animal nutritionist, and Zoology#Physiology animal physiologist, known for the construction of the Armsby respiration calorimeter.He was elected in 1911 to the UK's Royal Society of Arts, in 1912 to the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, and in 1920 to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Quotes If the metabolizable energy were all available to protect Tissue biology#Animal tissue body tissue from oxidization, then giving feed to a fasting or partially fasting animal would be practically the substitution of one kind of fuel for another, and the total heat production would remain the same. It is, however, an observation as old as the time of Lavoisier that the consumption of feed tends to increase the heat production of an animal. That investigator observed the oxygen consumption of man to increase materially (about 37 per cent) after a meal, and subsequent experiments by a large number of investigators have fully confirmed these earlier results, so that the fact of an increased metabolism consequent upon the ingestion of feed is undisputed. It is especially to the investigations of Nathan Zuntz Zuntz and his associates that we owe the unquestionable demonstration of this fact and of its significance in relation to the nutritive values of feeding stuffs. The Maintenance Rations of Farm Animals February 1912 U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Animal Industry, Bulletin 143 U.S. Government Printing Office 19–20 https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Maintenance_Rations_of_Farm_Animals.html?id=H4c-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA19 (110 pages; text as archive.org) It is a well-recognized fact that only the smaller portion of the solar energy or of the proteins which are stored up in the farmer's crops is directly available for man's use. Even in distinctively food crops, such as wheat, for example, more than two-thirds of the energy which they contain may be unavailable for human nutrition, while the grasses and Legume#Forage legumes, so important in all systems of agriculture, are of no direct value as food for man. The essential function of the animal in a permanent system of agriculture is the conversion of as large a proportion as possible of these inedible products into forms whose matter and energy can be utilized by the human body. Introduction The Nutrition of Farm Animals Macmillan 1917 https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Nutrition_of_Farm_Animals.html?id=DAcwAAAAYAAJ&pg=PR15 xv–xvii (quote from p. xv; 743 pages) Quotes about Henry Prentiss Armsby Food is given to keep animals alive, to provide for normal growth, to facilitate the best powers of reproduction, and, in the case of cattle, to render fit for human consumption in the shape of beef flesh or milk the fodders, forages, and grasses inedible to man. The energetics of these transformations had always intrigued him and, according to his concept, the one logical method of studying them was with an accurately measurable standard, i.e., the calorie. At the Institute of Animal Nutrition, then, he began plans for that unique instrument, the great respiration calorimeter for large domestic animals. This was housed in a special building, together with most perfect accessory apparatus, and technicians were carefully trained to operate it. Naturally these heroic experiments challenged the attention of research workers in animal nutrition throughout the world. So perfect was the design, construction, and operation of this intricate apparatus that immediately Armsby began to unfold new concepts and impress practices in the highly important economic and physiological problems of animal nutrition. Francis Gano Benedict, Biographical Memoir of Henry Prentiss Armsby 1853–1921 Biographical Memoirs of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences 1938 XIX U.S. Government Office http://biographicalmemoirs.org/pdfs/armsby-henry-p.pdf 271–284 External links Henry P. Armsby Armsby Respiration Calorimeter took the guesswork our of feeding livestock Penn State University, YouTube April 8, 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSyfq0hw7Fw Category:1853 births Category:1921 deaths Category:Academics from the United States Category:Biochemists Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Category:Physiologists Category:Scientists from Massachusetts Category:Yale University alumni