SUSPENSION OF GROWTH ON A MAINTENANCE DIET. 7 1 



is only equal to that of a normal child at birth, the height has been 

 found above that of the latter, illustrating, as Fleischner remarks, 

 "that age plays some part in the growth of the infant, independent 

 of the weight." This corresponds with the cases of the animals 

 already cited. Fleischner concludes from his measurements of 500 

 children of whom 25 per cent were well nourished, 35 per cent fairly 

 well nourished, and 40 per cent poorly nourished : 



It is in the poorly nourished children that age plays its most important 

 part ... In the poorly nourished children, most of whom are probably 

 somewhat premature, when the weight is below normal, all the measure- 

 ments are correspondingly below normal. The height and circumference of 

 the head reach the normal birth measurements a little ahead of the weight, 

 while the chest and abdomen are two months later in reaching the measure- 

 ments of a normal child at birth. When the weight is stationary the in- 

 crease in the measurements is very small, depending upon the slight in- 

 fluence which age has upon the growth of the infant notwithstanding the 

 weight. The measurements of infants of the same weight, notwithstanding 

 the age, are very similar, the small difference depending, as when the weight 

 of a child is stationary, upon the very slight influence of age upon growth. 

 The final conclusion can be drawn that during the first year of life the 

 primary factor in the increase of the measurements of the body is steady, 

 consistent increase in the weight, the influence of age being secondary and 

 much less important.* 



SUSPENSION OE GROWTH ON A MAINTENANCE DIET. 



Early in the course of our investigation we noted that young 

 rats could remain in apparent good health while living on some of 

 the mixtures of isolated food-stuffs, without giving any evidence of 

 growth. In some instances the animals ultimately declined and 

 died where the diet was not changed ; but in numerous cases body- 

 weight, which we used as our guide, remained practically unchanged 

 or showed a minimal slow increase (cf. Charts XXXVII, LXIII, 

 and LXIV). The experiment showing the greatest growth under 

 these dietary conditions is recorded in Chart XXXVIII. Other 

 investigators have met with this stationary condition and accepted 

 it as evidence of satisfactory nutritive equilibrium. We soon became 

 convinced, however, that a diet which will not induce real growth 

 at the proper age is unquestionably defective from the standpoint of 

 perfect nutrition. Furthermore, inasmuch as the ungrown rat has a 

 far smaller reserve of available energy and manifests the utilization 

 of a suitable diet both speedily and conspicuously by its measurable 

 changes in size, the animal becomes an exceptionally appropriate 

 subject at this early stage for the study of the nutritive requirement. 



The most precise evidence which we can present at this time of 

 the stationary condition of the animals which we have stunted by 



*E- C. Fleischner: Archives of Pediatrics, October 1906. 



