14 METABOLISM AND GROWTH FROM BIRTH TO PUBERTY. 



the knowledge of the basal requirements of young children over that 

 shown in the earlier studies. Singularly enough, they represent 

 nearly the only extensive investigation in this field for a period of over 

 20 years. The results obtained by Magnus-Levy and Falk are prac- 

 tically the first data in the earlier literature which are available for 

 comparison with modern work, although the latter requires even more 

 stringent experimental conditions, particularly as to muscular repose 

 and absence of food in the stomach. A recent biometric analysis 1 of 

 the older subjects of Magnus-Levy and Falk shows that, on the whole, 

 these subjects apparently had a somewhat higher metabolism than 

 that of American subjects. In table 6 we have abstracted from the 

 extensive material of Magnus-Levy and Falk the data dealing with 

 children 14 years or younger, i. e., the ages covered by our own 

 observations. 



On the assumption that the age relationship is linear, Harris and 

 Benedict 1 point out that the boys, particularly the young boys, are 

 characterized by measurably higher metabolism than would be com- 

 puted from the multiple-prediction methods. These differences are 

 by no means so pronounced with the girls. Further discussion of this 

 point is made on page 197. 



Von Willebrand, 1907. Von Willebrand 2 made a number of experi- 

 ments with boys 9 to 14 years old. As his results are published in a 

 somewhat inaccessible journal, they are given in some detail in table 7 

 herewith. The apparatus used were the respiration chamber in 

 Helsingfors and the Pettersson-Sonden gas-analysis apparatus. The 

 body-surface area was calculated by the Meeh formula, the constant 

 12.165 being used for the two youngest boys and 12.847 for the two 

 older. The experiments were usually 24 hours long and began in 

 the morning. All three meals of the day were taken in the apparatus; 

 the subject went to bed in the evening about 8 or 9 o'clock and rose in 

 the morning about 6 o'clock. In some instances the subject slept for a 

 short time during the day. 



In discussing his results, the author does not use the minimum values 

 as reported in our table, but takes the average for the whole 24-hour 

 period. He first discusses the normality of his children on the basis 

 of weight, age, etc., but gives no heights for his subjects. As average 

 weights, he uses 26 kg. for Veikko, 30.5 kg. for Viktor, 34.3 kg. for 

 Julius, and 35.7 kg. for Silo. The average carbon-dioxide production 

 per hour of these subjects is given as 17.9, 21.7, 20.2, and 18.6 grams, 

 respectively. A comparison between the carbon-dioxide production 

 of the subjects per hour while awake with that during sleep is given 

 in table 8. Von Willebrand reports that Sonden and Tigerstedt found 



1 Harris and Benedict, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 279, 1919, p. 233. 



2 von Willebrand, Finska Lakaresallskapets Handlingar, 1907, 49, p. 417. 



