A CRITIQUE OF THE BODY-SURFACE LAW. 



143 



To what extent do these measurements justify the formulas which 

 have been based upon them? 



The constant term of both the Meeh and the Lissauer formula is 

 given by 



TABLE 47. Constants of 

 Lissauer's babies. 



where a' is the directly measured body-surface area. 



Meeh's observations gave constants entered in the final column of 

 table 46. 6C Those for Lissauer's group of 12 babies 61 are given in 

 table 47. 



Now the ''constants," both those for adults whose surface-area 

 was measured by Meeh, Fubini and Ronchi, Bouchard, and Du Bois 

 and Du Bois, and those for infants whose 

 surface-area was measured by Lissauer, show 

 great differences among themselves. Thus 

 in the adult series we find the actually de- 

 termined "constant" terms ranging from 

 9.06 to 13.17. Yet Meeh in his original pub- 

 lication retained six or seven significant figures 

 in recording his constants, notwithstanding 

 the fact that constants obtained when both 

 sides of the body were actually measured 

 differed from those in which one side only 

 was measured in the third or fourth signifi- 

 cant figure in every case. In Lissauer's in- 

 fants the "constants" range from 8.92 to 

 12.40. This great discrepancy was fully recognized by Lissauer who, 

 emphasizing the great variation in the individual determinations, 

 chose 10.3 as that most free from criticism. 



If we determine the standard deviation and the coefficients of varia- 

 tion of these "constant" terms we have the following results: 



For 20 adults, measured by Meeh and others: 



A- = 11. 676 <r h = 1.2400 F ft = 10.62 



For 12 infants measured by Lissauer: 

 k = 10.398 o- 4 =0.7834 F*=7.53 



The coefficients of variation express the results in the most easily 

 comprehensible form. We see that there is a variation of 10.6 per cent 

 in the adults and of 7.5 per cent in the infants. In other words 



60 In 5 cases the constants recomputed by ourselves do not agree exactly with those given by 



Meeh. We have, however, used the values given by him. 



61 These are the constants given by Lissauer. Their calculation has not been rechecked. The 



first column (A"*) givest he constant determined from the weight just before or after death. 

 The second (K} gives the constant calculated from the baby's maximum weight. 



