6 



METABOLISM AND GROWTH FROM BIRTH TO PUBERTY. 



suddenly ceases and the amount of carbon-dioxide produced remains 

 stationary, being nearly what it was in childhood. Thus, with a girl 

 13 years old the carbon burned per hour was 6.3 grams; with a girl 

 15^ years old, who had not yet reached puberty, the value found was 

 7.1 grams, while with another girl of the same age, who had reached 

 puberty, the value was only 6.3 grams. 



Comparing the two sexes, Andral and Gavarret conclude that the 

 male child burns more carbon than the female, on the average about 

 1 gram more of carbon per hour. 



The absence of weights and heights in the report lessens its value, 

 but in view of the subsequent researches of Du Bois and certain data 

 accumulated by us these early conclusions with regard to the influence 

 of puberty are of special significance. 



Scharling, 1843. Publishing simultaneously with Andral and Gavar- 

 ret, Scharling 1 reports experiments with a number of subjects, two of 

 them children of the age-range we are considering in this report, one 

 a boy of 9f years of age weighing 22 kg., and one a girl of 10 years 

 weighing 23 kg. Scharling's apparatus was a respiration chamber, a 

 brief description of which has been given in a previous report. 2 The 

 values of special significance in connection with the discussion of 

 basal metabolism are those on the boy and girl in table 2. 



i 



TABLE 2. Basal metabolism of children (Scharling'). 



1 In recalculating carbon to basis of carbon dioxide, estimated that 1 Danish "gran" (the measure 



used by Scharling) equals 0.0621 gram. 



2 Heat computed from carbon-dioxide production, assuming 3 calories per gram of carbon dioxide. 



Forster, 1877. The next recorded observations on children are the 

 studies made by Forster 3 in Munich in 1877. These are presented in a 

 fragmentary manner in somewhat inaccessible publications. Certain 

 of Forster's results were abstracted in our two previous publications, 

 but as his studies have a special historical interest as being the first 



1 Scharling, Ann. d. Chem. u. Pharm., 1843, 45, p. 214; reprinted in detail in Ann. d. Chim. et 



d. Phys., 1843, ser. 3, 8, p. 478. 



2 Benedict and Carpenter, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 261, 1918, p. 13. 



3 Forster, Amtl. Ber. d. 50 Versamml. deutsch. Naturf. u. Aerate in Mtinchen, 1877, p. 355; 



also v. Ziemssen's Handbuch der Hygiene, Leipsic, 1882, 1, p. 76. See also Magnus-Levy 

 and Falk, Archiv f. Anat. u. Physiol., 1899, Suppbd., p. 356. 



