A CRITIQUE OF THE BODY-SURFACE LAW. 131 



The memoir by Rameaux and Sarrus was never published in full 

 by the Academic de Medecine, but abstracts had appeared earlier in 

 Comptes Rendus 5 and through a letter to Quetelet in the Bulletins de 

 V Academic Royale de Bruxelles, 6 and the final memoir was read by 

 Rameaux before the Belgian Academy in 1857 and published in 1858. 7 



In none of these publications is the proposition that heat-production 

 is proportional to body-surface emphasized as a new conception. In 

 his volume of 1889 Richet, 8 in referring to one of his tables, calls 

 attention to "la demonstration physiologique de ce fait bien connu que 

 la production de calorique est fonction de la surface et non du poids." 



Ten years after the appearance of Rameaux's preliminary papers 

 Bergmann 9 attempted to explain the relatively higher food demands 

 of small as compared with those of larger animals of the same species 

 by the generalization that the heat-production of a body is proportional 

 to its surface. Bergmann's work was entirely comparative and theo- 

 retical. While Rameaux in his final memoir brought together and 

 analyzed considerable series of data for pulse-rate, respiration-rate, 

 and lung-capacity, the first experimental evidence seems to have been 

 that presented by Mlintz 10 who in discussing the maintenance food 

 requirement for horses as investigated in a series of experiments made 

 in 1879 gives a clear statement of the conception of the relationship 

 between body-surface and metabolism. Although his experiments 

 contribute nothing of importance to the general problem, his concep- 

 tion is of sufficient importance, historically at least, to be quoted 

 in full : 



"II nous semble, des a present, que la quantite d'aliments necessaire 

 1'animal pour s'entretenir sans travailler doit se trouver plutot en rapport 

 avec la surface qu'avec le poids de son corps. Toutes choses egales d'ailleurs, 

 on peut admettre que la quantite de chaleur enlevee au corps est proportion- 

 nelle a sa surface. Une notable partie de 1'aliment est certainement consom- 

 mee pour 1'entretien de la chaleur vitale qui tend constamment a se perdre, 

 par rayonnement ou par conductibilite, dans le milieu ambiant. Une autre 

 cause de refroidissement est 1'evaporation cutanee qui est fonction de la surface 

 du corps, si elle ne lui est pas proportionnelle. L'evaporation produite par 

 les organes respiratoires peut egalement etre regardee comme ayant un rapport 

 avec la surface bien plus qu'avec le poids. Nous sommes done, par ces con- 

 siderations, autorises a admettre 1'influence preponderante de la surface du 

 corps sur la quotite de la ration d'entretien. 



5 Sarrus and Rameaux, Compt. rend. Acad. sci., Paris, 1838, 6, p. 338; loc. cit., 1839, 9, p. 275. 



6 Rameaux, Bull. Acad. roy. d. sci. de Bruxelles, 1839, 6, (2), p. 121. 



7 Rameaux, Mem. couron. Acad. roy. d. sci. (etc.) de Belg., Brux., 1858, 39, 64 pp. 



8 Richet, La chaleur animale, Paris, 1889, p. 222. 



9 Bergmann and Leuckart, Anatomisch-physiologische Ubersicht des Thierreichs, Stutt- 



gart, 1852, see especially p. 272. Also Bergmann, Ueber die Verhaltnisse der Warme- 

 okonomie der Thiere zu ihrer Grosse, Gottingen, 1848. An earlier paper in Miillers' 

 Archiv, 1845, p. 300 is also cited. 



10 Miintz, in an article entitled "Recherches sur 1'alimentation et sur la production du 



travail," in Annales de I'lnstitut National Agronomique, Paris, 1880, 3, pp. 23-61. 

 This quotation is from p. 59. According to a statement on p. 25. "Les experiences de la 

 3 me serieontduredu 12 Septembre 1879 au 7 Fevrier 1 880, c'est-a-dire pendant 148 jours." 



