A CRITIQUE OF THE BODY-SURFACE LAW. 141 



in the basal katabolism 43 in the fattened state. This they attribute 

 in part to the greater body-weight to be supported in standing, but 

 they point out that the increase in heat-production with fattening is 

 more rapid than the increase in body-weight or in body-surface as 

 estimated by the Meeh formula. "Apparently the accumulation of 

 fat tended in some way to stimulate the general metabolism." 



3. MEASUREMENT OF BODY-SURFACE AREA. 



When one thinks of a physical or biological "law" he naturally 

 assumes that the measurements upon which it is grounded are adequate 

 in number and reliability to justify fully the formulation of the general- 

 ization under consideration. 



Du Bois and Du Bois 49 freely admit that the whole question of the 

 validity of Rubner's Law "rests on the accuracy of the determinations 

 of the basal metabolism and of the surface-area." They also point 

 out that "The methods of determining the metabolism have been 

 greatly improved, leaving the surface-area the doubtful factor." It 

 seems worth while, therefore, to summarize briefly the actual measure- 

 ments of body-surface area upon which the comparisons underlying 

 the body-surface law rest. 



In much of the work which has been done on the inter-specific 

 applicability of the "law" the measures of body-surface can hardly 

 be dignified as approximations. Richet 53 compared the surfaces of 

 his rabbits on the assumption that they were spheres. Certain investi- 

 gators have used the constant term for the horse in estimating the 

 body-surface of swine by the Meeh formula. Finally Flitter 51 has ap- 

 parently used the same formula for mammals ranging in form from 

 the camel to the walrus ! 



Even when we turn to so intensively studied an organism as man, 

 we find that, to quote the Du Boises again, "the number of formulae for 

 surface-area determination is large, the number of individuals whose 

 area has been measured is small." 



Du Bois and Du Bois give a list and brief discussion of at least the 

 chief of the various formulas which have been proposed. In view of 

 the fact that most of these have received practically no attention from 

 physiologists, it seems unnecessary to discuss them here where we are 

 concerned primarily with the question of the adequacy of the actual 

 measurements upon which formulas have been based. 



Meeh 52 in 1879 published the results of his painstaking measure- 

 ments of 6 adults and 10 children, using a variety of methods. 



48 Basal katabolism in ruminants must be determined under conditions in some regards 



essentially different from those obtaining in investigations on man and the carnivora. 

 For the details the special literature of animal metabolism must be considered. 



49 Du Bois and Du Bois, Arch. Intern. Med., 1915, 15, p. 868. 

 60 Richet, La chaleur animate, Paris, 1889, p. 222. 



51 Putter, Zeitschr. f. Allg. Biol., 1911, 12, p. 201. 



52 Meeh, Zeitschr. f. Biol., 1879, 15, pp. 425-458. 



