156 A BIOMETRIC STUDY OF BASAL METABOLISM IN MAN. 



it is in some degree proportional to both body-surface and to body- 

 weight and they furnish a measure of this closeness of agreement on a 

 universally applicable scale of 1 to +1. They further show that the 



-1785 



35 40 



4-5 



SO 



ss 



60 



65 



70 



75 







85 SO 



BODY WEIGHT IN KILOGRAMS 



DIAGRAM 24. Relationship between body-weight and total heat-production by women. 



interrelationship is in no case a perfect one. We are not, therefore, 

 dealing with a law in the sense that the term is used in the exact 

 sciences. 



Knowing the number of seconds which a body has been falling 



towards the earth, we can state its 

 velocity at this moment or at any 

 future moment of time. Knowing 

 the volume of a gas at temperature 

 t and pressure p, we can state its 

 volume at temperature t' and press- 

 ure p'. These theoretical laws hold 

 in the individual instance with as 

 high a degree of precision as can be 

 demonstrated by the most exact ex- 

 perimental method. Such is not 

 the case in human metabolism. In- 

 stead of having a perfect correlation 

 between body -weight and total 

 heat-production, as we should if 



DIAGRAM 25. Relationship between total V,_.A ' -v^j,,^^;, i.t;svr>r>1 



heat -production and square meters of heat-production were proportional 



body-surface of women as estimated by to body-Weight, W6 have only about 



80 per cent of perfect correlation. 



The true significance of these correlations may be best understood 

 by looking at them in a quite different way. If heat-production were 

 actually proportional to body-weight, or to body-surface, we should 



I78S 



IB8S 



I58S 



14-85 



1381 



IZKS 



II8S 



IOSS 



1.30 1.4-0 ISO 1.60 /.70 1.80 1.90 ?-OC 



BODY SURFACE 



