198 A BIOMETRIC STUDY OF BASAL METABOLISM IN MAN. 



same conclusion must also apply for the more modern method of body- 

 surface measurement. 



The question as to whether heat-production is more closely related 

 to body-weight or to body-surface can be answered only by (a) deter- 

 mining the correlation between each of these two characters and heat- 

 production, or by (6) determining which of these two characters will 

 give the closest prediction of the heat-production of an individual. 



The correlations between body-weight, body-surface as approxi- 

 mated by the Meeh formula, and body-surface as indicated by the 

 Du Bois height-weight chart on the one hand and gaseous exchange and 

 total heat-production on the other have been determined. The correla- 

 tions between body-weight and heat-production are of approximately 

 the same magnitude as those between body-surf ace and heat-production. 

 These results do not, therefore, justify the conclusion that metabolism 

 is proportional to body-surface and not proportional to w r eight. Metab- 

 olism is not proportional to either of these physical characters in an 

 absolute sense. It is correlated very closely indeed with all three 

 bodily measurements, stature, weight, and surface. 



While the differences between the constants are very slight and 

 can in no case be looked upon as statistically significant in comparison 

 with their probable errors, the correlation coefficients indicate a some- 

 what closer relationship between body-surface and total heat-produc- 

 tion than between body-weight and total heat-production. That this 

 closer relationship between area and heat-production can not be taken 

 as proof of the validity of "Rubner's law" as applied to human indi- 

 viduals has been indicated. This point will receive attention below. 



In the past many physiologists have assumed that the heat- 

 production of an individual should be given by 



h wh k 



where h = the heat-production of the individual, w = the weight of the 

 individual, and h k the mean heat-production per kilogram of body- 

 weight in the standard series, or by 



h=ah a 



where a = superficial area and h a = mean heat per square meter of body- 

 area in the standard series. 



We have shown that far better results are given by the use of 

 equations of the type 



(h-h) = r wh (w-w} (h-h) =r a ,^ h (a-a) 



ff. a a 



where /?., w, and a denote total heat, body-weight, and surface-area, 

 the bars denote means, the sigmas standard deviations, and r the 

 coefficient of correlation between the characters. When these equa- 

 tions are used the heat-production of an individual can be calculated 



