STANDARD BASAL METABOLISM CONSTANTS. 



231 



law by Means. 9 The data for the application of the equations and the 

 results of their application are shown in table 88 for the 8 men and in 

 table 89 for the 7 women. 



In these and the following comparisons the differences are taken 



(actual metabolism) less (calculated metabolism) 



so that a positive sign indicates supernormal and a negative sign 

 subnormal metabolism in a subject. In this regard the constants of 

 this chapter differ from those in Chapter VI. The reason for the differ- 

 ence seems a logical one. In that place we were seeking to determine 

 empirically which of a series of methods proposed for predicting metab- 



TABLE 88. Comparison of metabolism of men studied by Palmer, Means, and Gamble with 



normal (multiple prediction) standard. 



TABLE 89. Comparison of metabolism of women studied by Palmer, Means, and Gamble with 



normal (multiple prediction) standard. 



olism actually gives the closest approximation to the true value in a 

 large series of subjects. We therefore determined which predicted 

 with the smallest error, i.e., which gave the lowest value of 



(calculated metabolism) less (actual metabolism) . 



But having established the best method and utilized the largest avail- 

 able series of data uniformally obtained as the basis of our constants, 

 we feel fully justified in taking these equations as our standard, and 

 in considering that smaller series either do or do not agree with this 



9 Means, Journ. Biol. Chem., 1915, 21, p. 263. 



