CHAPTER VII. 



A COMPARISON OF BASAL METABOLISM OF NORMAL 



MEN AND WOMEN. 



1. HISTORICAL. 



Consideration of the problem of the relative metabolism of men 

 and women dates from 1843, when Scharling, 1 whose results have been 

 recalculated by Sonden and Tigerstedt, 2 found that a girl 19 years of 

 age excreted a considerably smaller amount of carbon dioxide and a 

 considerably smaller amount of carbon dioxide per kilogram of body- 

 weight than a boy 16 years of age. Her actual carbon-dioxide produc- 

 tion was less than that of two men of 28 and 35, but her carbon dioxide 

 per kilogram of body-weight lay between that of the two adult men. 

 He also found that a girl of 10 produced both absolute!}' and relatively 

 less carbon dioxide than a boy of about the same age. Scharling con- 

 cludes from these observations that there is a greater production of 

 carbon dioxide by men than by women of the same age. 



Andral and Gavarret 3 worked with 37 men and 22 women. They 

 conclude that throughout the whole of life there is a greater production 

 of carbon dioxide by men than by women, and that between the ages 

 of 16 and 40 men produce about twice as much carbon dioxide as women 

 do. Unfortunately Andral and Gavarret have not recorded the 

 weights of their men and women; it is therefore, impossible to make 

 comparisons on the basis of relative heat-production, i.e., on the num- 

 ber of calories per kilogram of body-weight or on the basis of the 

 number of calories per square meter of body-surface. 



The data of Speck, 4 restated by Sonden and Tigerstedt, 5 show 

 higher metabolism in men than in women over 17 years of age, but the 

 difference is reversed in the case of a boy of 10 and a girl of 13. 



In their classical monograph on the respiratory exchange and 

 metabolism, Sonden and Tigerstedt 6 published an extensive series of 

 observations on both men and women, in which the large respiration 

 chamber in Stockholm was used. These results are comparable for the 

 two sexes, although the observations were made under such conditions 



: Scharling, Ann. d. Chem. u. Pharm., 1843, 45, p. 214. Reprinted in detail in Ann. de chim. 



et phys., 1843, 3 ser., 8, p. 478. 



2 Sonden and Tigerstedt, Skand. Arch. f. Physiol., 1895, 6, p. 54. 

 * Andral and Gavarret, Ann. d. chim. et phys., 1843, 3 ser., 8, p. 129. 

 4 Speck, Physiologic des menschlichen Athmens, Leipzig, 1892. 

 6 Sonden and Tigerstedt, loc. cit., p. 57. 

 6 SondSn and Tigerstedt, loc. cit., p. 58. 



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