METABOLISM AS AFFECTED BY GROWTH. 113 



is likewise not supported, although this is probably the true value for 

 the basal metabolism. 



These selections seemed desirable in preparing the individual chart 

 for No. 145, and it is for the purpose of showing investigators the basis 

 for these and similar selections that the detailed figures for this child 

 are given in table 25. If there is disagreement with our selection of 

 the values shown in table 26 and used in the chart, other data can be 

 chosen, but according to our experience, the selected figures are the 

 most probable and best experimentally substantiated values for the 

 basal metabolism of this child at the various age-levels. 



In the analysis of the figures in table 25, little attention can profit- 

 ably be paid to the values of heat per kilogram of body-weight and per 

 square meter of body-surface, other than to note that, in general, 

 there is a disposition for the heat per kilogram of body-weight to 

 decrease as the child grows older. An examination of the values for 

 heat per square meter of body-surface shows very considerable vari- 

 ations. Those variations ascribable to activity (for which note indices 

 in the last column of the table) should be completely disregarded in 

 any careful analysis. Consequently, the detailed data do not lend 

 themselves to a comparison of values from day to day, from month 

 to month, or from year to year. It may be noted roughly that with 

 high activity there is almost invariably a high heat production per 

 square meter of body-surface, but since we are interested primarily 

 in the basal metabolism of children, i. e., the metabolism measured 

 when activity is not present, those periods with high activity can have 

 value only as indicating the possible maxima when the child is ex- 

 tremely restless. The distribution and range of the basal values can 

 much better be studied by means of the chart. 



The chart in figure 15 indicates the changes in body-weight, pulse- 

 rate, total calories per 24 hours, calories per kilogram of body-weight, 

 and calories per square meter of body-surface, from the age of 5 months 

 to 41 months. Considering first the body-w r eight, since this, like the 

 other children studied, was a normal child, we find the curve quite in 

 line with that normally expected, namely, a definite progressive increase 

 throughout the entire period, the most rapid period of change being 

 from the fifth to the twenty-first month. The total calories, al- 

 though showing considerable differences from time to time, range 

 from 317 to 667 calories; in general the curve is reasonably parallel 

 to the curve for body-weight. In other words, as the child regularly 

 increased in weight, height, and age, the total calories per 24 hours 

 likewise regularly increased. 



With so rapidly changing an organism as a growing child, compari- 

 sons should be made at two ages or weights on some basis other than 

 total calories. The two bases most commonly used by physiologists 

 have been those corresponding to a unit of weight, i. e., the calories 



