INDIVIDUALS AND MEASUREMENTS CONSIDERED. 31 



we have used the carbon-dioxide production. When either the oxygen 

 or the carbon-dioxide determination was missing, we have assumed, 

 when no better evidence is available, a common respiratory quotient 

 of 0.85. In certain cases we have used quotients determined on the 

 day antecedent to or the day subsequent to the period on which a 

 constant is based. Usually the quotient of 0.85 is used. 



As in these short experiments it was frequently difficult to secure 

 accurate collection of urine, we have not attempted to compute the 

 calories from protein nor the non-protein respiratory quotient, but 

 have taken the calorific equivalent of oxygen as used by Zuntz and 

 Schumburg, 17 making no special correction for the influence of the 

 protein metabolism upon the respiratory quotient and the calorific 

 equivalent of carbon dioxide and oxygen. In short experiments, par- 

 ticularly with uncertainty as to the nitrogen excretion in the urine, this 

 procedure is recommended by Loewy 18 as giving results practically 

 within 1 per cent of the true value. 



2. DATA ANALYZED. 



The data analyzed in this volume were gathered in the course of 

 the various investigations which have been carried out at the Nutrition 

 Laboratory, or by those collaborating with this Laboratory, during the 

 past several years. Two series have been published. The data are 

 given in full in this publication and are therefore available to anyone 

 who cares to go over the analytical phases of the present treatment. 



The materials are the following : 



A. A series of 51 male and 43 female infants investigated by Benedict 



and Talbot. 19 This series was chosen rather than the first series 

 published by Benedict and Talbot 20 because, in the opinion of these 

 workers, the second series represents a far more homogeneous series 

 of materials. This will be designated as the infant series. 



B. A series of measurements on 89 men and 68 women made at various 



times at the Nutrition Laboratory and elsewhere by cooperating 

 investigators, and published 21 as a basis for a comparison of basal 

 metabolism in men and women, athletic and non-athletic indi- 

 viduals, vegetarians and non-vegetarians, and so forth. This will be 

 designated as the original adult series to distinguish it from two sup- 

 plementary series of measurements of adults hitherto unpublished. 



C. Determinations of basal metabolism in 28 men and 1 woman carried 



out subsequently to the series described immediately above. These 

 data will be designated as the First Supplementary Series. (The 

 woman has been included with the second supplementary series.) 



D. The Second Supplementary Series. This comprises 19 men and 34 



women. 



17 Zuntz and Schumburg, Physiologie des Marsches, Berlin, 1901, p. 361. 



18 Loewy, Oppenheimer's Handbuch der Biochemie, Jena, 1911, 4, (1), p. 281. 



19 Benedict and Talbot, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 233, 1915. 



20 Benedict and Talbot, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 201, 1914. 



21 Benedict, Emmes, Roth, and Smith, Journ. Biol. Chem., 1914, 18, p. 139. 



