A CRITIQUE OF THE BODY-SURFACE LAW. 



185 



stature and body-weight may be obtained by a comparison with the 

 results of prediction from body-weight only. 



Since it has appeared that the prediction from body-surface as 

 estimated by the Du Bois height-weight chart gives more reliable 

 results than prediction from body-surface as computed from the Meeh 

 formula, it seems superfluous to make the comparisons of the prediction 

 methods here under consideration with those involving body-surface as 

 measured by this now antiquated formula. 



In the following tables we shall, therefore, compare the errors of 

 estimation found in predicting metabolism from multiple regression 

 equations involving stature and body-weight with those found by 

 considering it proportional to body-weight and to body-surface by the 



TABLE 70. Comparison of average deviation (in calories, with regard to sign) from the actual caloric- 

 output, of heat-production calculated on the one hand from multiple regression equations involving 

 body-weight and stature and on the other from (a) the mean heat-production per unit of body-weight 

 and of surface by the Du Bois height-weight chart and from (b) the regression of total heat on body- 

 weight and on surface area by the Du Bois height-weight chart. 



* The differences in these columns are obtained from the first column of this table and the entries of pre- 

 ceding tables as follows: column II from III of table 60; column III from III of table 66; column IV from I 

 of table 60; column V from I of table 66. 



Du Bois height-weight chart, and when given by a linear-regression 

 equation in which heat is predicted from body-weight or from body- 

 surface by the height-weight chart. 



Table 70 gives the average deviations with regard to sign of the 

 theoretical heat-productions calculated by the multiple-prediction 

 equation from the observed values and compares these deviations with 

 those computed by the four other methods. Comparing the average 

 deviations with regard to sign of the constants computed by the various 

 methods in table 70, we note that in 2 of the 4 larger series (IV-VII), 

 in which the prediction of the metabolism of the individuals of one 

 series is made from the equations based on another series of individuals 

 of the same sex, prediction by the simultaneous use of stature and 



