164 A BIOMETRIC STUDY OF BASAL METABOLISM IN MAN. 



weight proportional to their magnitudes. But one may consider that 

 very great deviations should be given proportionally more weight in 

 testing different prediction methods than very slight deviations. 

 The magnitudes of the deviations may be logically weighted and the 

 transgression against the law of signs avoided by squaring the devia- 

 tions before they are summed. The square root of the mean of these 

 summed squares will then furnish a logical measure of the deviation 

 of the calculated from the observed productions. For the sake of 

 completeness in the investigation of a problem which has the contro- 

 versial status of the "body-surface law" we shall use both of these 

 methods. 



The deviations of the predicted from the actually determined heat- 

 production is expressed in two different ways in the accompanying 

 tables: (1) The differences are expressed in the absolute terms of 

 calories per 24 hours. (2) The differences are reduced to a relative 

 basis by expressing them as a percentage of the mean heat-production 

 in calories per 24 hours of the specific group of individuals dealt with. 



We now turn to the actual data. 



The average heat-productions for the 72 individuals of the Gephart 

 and Du Bois selection and for the 64 other individuals for the three 

 units of body-measurements adopted are as follows : 



Heat-production per kilogram of body-weight : 



72 of Gephart and Du Bois selection 25.7944 0.1655 calories. 



64 others 25.5875 0.2292 calories. 



Difference 0.2069 0.2827 calories. 



Heat-production per square meter of body-surface by Meeh formula: 



72 of Gephart and Du Bois selection 831.639 4.413 calories. 



64 others 828.203 5.742 calories. 



Difference 3.436 7.242 calories. 



Heat-production per square meter of body-surface by Du Bois height-weight chart: 



72 of Gephart and Du Bois selection 926.653 4.975 calories. 



64 others 924.141 6.063 calories. 



Difference 2.512 7.843 calories. 



While the results for the two sets of individuals are not exactly 

 identical, as shown by the differences, the probable errors of these 

 differences show that the two groups of men can not be considered to 

 differ significantly. Thus, while the constants of these two series will 

 not give exactly identical results if used for the calculation of control 

 values as a basis of comparison in applied calorimetry, the differences 

 between them are so small that they can not be asserted to have any 

 physiological significance. 



The results for the two series of women are : 



Heat-production per kilogram of body-weight: 



68 Original women 25.3500 0.2467 calories. 



35 Supplementary women 22.7229 0.4103 calories. 



Difference . 2.6271 0.4788 calories. 



