Santorio Santorio (1561-1636) in his steelyard balance, from Ars de statica medecina,ย first published 1614ย Metabolismย (from ฮผฮตฯฮฑฮฒฮฟฮปฮนฯฮผฮฟฯ(metavallo), theย Greekย word for “change”), in the most general sense, is the ingestion and breakdown of complex compounds, coupled with the liberation of energy, and the consequent generation of waste products. It is a major process ofย livingย organisms, and because this process can happen at many levels within an organism, we can identify several kinds of metabolism:
- When concerning an organism in its entirety,ย metabolismย (also calledย total metabolism) is all of the livingย organism’sย chemicalย processes. The organism’s metabolism can be dichotomized into the synthesis of organic molecules (anabolism) and their breakdown (catabolism).
- When concerning a particular substance,ย metabolismย (also calledย specific metabolism) is the chemical activity involving this substance in a living organism. This is commonly theย digestionย ofย food, and the disposal ofย wastes.
- When concerning a particular livingย cell,ย metabolismย (also calledย cell metabolism) is all of the chemical processes in that cell.
An abstract definition of metabolism is difficult to make in the same way an abstract definition ofย lifeย is difficult to make. For example, according to the definition above,ย fireย has a metabolism, too (it “eats”, for example, wood, converts it to heat, and disposes ashes), but we would not describe fire as metabolizing.
Santorio Santorio weighed himself in a chair suspended from a steelyard balance, before and after a meal, and published the results inย Ars de statica medecina, 1614, the first controlled experiment in human metabolism
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