Oxygen Consumption. 177 



As will be seen by a subsequent comparison, these results are remarkably con- 

 cordant with those obtained at the present day by the most improved methods. 

 Unfortunately, it is impossible for us to state by what method Lavoisier and 

 Seguin obtained these remarkable results. We have no indication whatever of 

 the nature of the apparatus, other than the two drawings by Madame Lavoisier. 1 

 The results certainly have great historic interest, and the wonder is that the 

 values found thus early agree so remarkably well with those found at the present 

 date under like conditions of bodily activity. 



Although innumerable observers have made a large number of experiments 

 on the composition of the expired air, noting the deficiency in oxygen and 

 increase in carbon dioxide, the results in no wise contribute to our knowledge 

 of the total oxygen consumption of man in any given experimental period, and 

 it was not until the advent of the method devised by Speck, 2 in which spirom- 

 eters were used, that we have accurate observations on this point. Speck's 

 measurements covered a series of some 25 years and the experiments numbered 

 hundreds. 



Speck, as the result of a large number of experiments on himself, concludes 

 that his normal oxygen consumption per minute is 285 c. c, his body-weight 

 being about 60 kilos. In studying a series of normal individuals by means of 

 this apparatus, he obtained 229 c. c. per minute as the oxygen absorption of a 

 20-year-old woman, weighing 47 kilos; a 17-year-old girl, weighing 52 kilos, 

 absorbed 269 c. c. per minute; a 17-year-old boy, weighing 55 kilos, 334 c. c; 

 a 24-year-old woman, weighing 58 kilos, 234 c. c. ; a 50-year-old man, weighing 

 62 kilos, 284 c. c; a 31-year-old man, weighing 72 kilos, 330 c. c. ; and a 57- 

 year-old man, weighing 62 kilos, 245 c.c. Henrijean 3 reports that the oxygen 

 consumption of a man, weighing 66 kilos, and 22 years of age, varied from 201 

 to 266 c. c. per minute 12 hours after the last meal. Speck criticises severely 

 the method by which these results were obtained. 



The results of the numerous investigators using the Zuntz-Geppert apparatus 

 have been collected in table 64. on page 156 of this report. In this table it 

 is seen that with 19 normal subjects the oxygen consumption per person per 

 minute varied from 177 to 336 c. c, the average for the 19 subjects being 

 237 c. c. Expressed in terms of per kilogram of body-weight and per minute, 

 the oxygen consumption varied from 2.76 to 5.50 c. c, averaging 3.79 c. c. 

 per minute. On the basis of per square meter of body-surface, the oxygen 

 consumption per minute varied from 97.5 c. c. to 176.1 c. c, the average for 

 all subjects being 121.7 c. c. per minute. 



By means of apparatus employing a mouthpiece and 3 gas-meters, Hanriot 

 and Eichet* made a number of experiments, from which they drew the con- 

 clusion that an adult man absorbs 0.45 gram of oxygen per kilogram of body- 



1 Grimaux, loc. cit. 



2 Speck, Physiologie des menschlichen Athmens, Leipzig, 1892. 



3 Henrijean, Bui. de l'acad. Belg., 1883, p. 113. Cited by Speck, p. 222. 

 1 Hanriot and Richet, loc. cit. 



