A CRITIQUE OF THE BODY-SURFACE LAW. 139 



of checking the results, a photographic method 42 of measuring surface- 

 area was developed and the values of heat-production per square 

 meter of body-surface 43 were recomputed. 



The subject took no food and only about 900 c.c. of distilled water 

 per day for 31 days. 44 The heat-production during the night was 

 measured directly with the bed-calorimeter for each of the 31 nights. 40 

 As the fast progressed there was a very noticeable decrease in heat- 

 production from night to night. This would naturally be expected 

 since weight decreased from about 60 kg. to about 47.5 kg. But the 

 metabolism when computed on the basis of body-weight showed a 

 decided loss as the fast progressed. There was also a loss in metabolism 

 per square meter of bodj^-surface. This is shown by the data in table 

 45, which gives the body-weight, the body-surface as computed by 

 the Meeh formula 46 and from the measurements of the anatomical 

 photographs, and the heat-production per square meter of body -surface 

 per 24 hours as based upon the observations with the bed-calorimeter 

 during the night. 



Disregarding the last food day prior to the fast, the heat-production 

 per square meter per 24 hours as given in the last column of the table 

 ranges from 927 calories on the third day to 664 calories on the twenty- 

 first day of the fast, representing a decrease of 28 per cent in the heat- 

 production per square meter of body-surface. Thereafter a distinct 

 tendency for the heat-production to increase was apparent. 



In the absence of any marked change in body-temperature the diffi- 

 culty of considering the loss of heat from the surface of the body as 

 the determining factor in the metabolism of this fasting man is very 



42 Benedict, Am. Journ. Physiol., 1916, 41, p. 275. 



43 Benedict, loc. cit., p. 292. 



44 The fasting man remained (so far as ocular evidence is concerned) for the most part physio- 

 logically normal during the progress of the fast. Strength tests made with the hand dynamometer 

 showed practically no change with the right hand and but a slight decrease with the left hand, 

 although there was an almost immediate evidence of fatigue in the first two or three days of the 

 fast. While there was naturally a certain amount of weakness observable in the last few days, 

 the subject, after having been without food for 31 days, spoke extemporaneously before a body 

 of physicians for approximately three-quarters of an hour, standing during the whole period and 

 vigorously gesticulating. Later in the day he sang and danced. It is thus clear that we have 

 here to do not with a fasting man who is in the last stage of emaciation and in a moribund condition 

 but with an individual who, judged from ocular evidence, would appear not at all unlike the norm- 

 ally emaciated type of individual. Furthermore, the body-temperature did not materially alter. 

 His average body-temperature in the bed-calorimeter experiment on the night of the last day of 

 the fast was but 0.3 C. below that of the night of the second day, a difference which indicates no 

 marked disturbance of the body-temperature. While the pulse-rate was distinctly lower at the 

 end of the period than at the beginning, it will be seen that the subject underwent the 31-day 

 fast without great loss of muscular strength or material alteration of body-temperature. 



45 It was likewise computed indirectly from the carbon-dioxide excretion and oxygen con- 

 sumption during the same period. Reference must be made to the original publication for the 

 methods of calculation and for a discussion of the heat-production per kilogram of body-weight, 

 in which an attempt was made to reduce the observation of each night to a common standard. 



46 It will be seen from the figures that, using as a standard the body-surface values obtained 

 with the photographic method, the body-surface as computed from the Meeh formula is invariably 

 too large and consequently the heat-production per square meter computed from this measure 

 of the body-surface is too small. 



