194 METABOLISM AND GROWTH FROM BIRTH TO PUBERTY. 



percentage deviation simply means that when the body-weight is 

 above 15 kg., the error of prediction is slightly less than when it is 

 between 15 and 10 kg., and considerably less than with boys under 

 10kg. 



TABLE 33. Comparison of the actual basal metabolism of boys with the metabolism predicted 

 (a) from body-weight, 1 (b) from body-surface, 2 and (c) from the adult masculine normal 

 (multiple prediction) standard. 3 (Average values.*) 



1 See figure 26, p. 140, and table 36, p. 206. 



2 See figure 38, p. 161. 



* Harris and Benedict, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 279, 1919, p. 227. 

 4 Averages obtained from data in table 32, pp. 190 to 193. 



A comparison of this method of prediction may be made with the 

 results of recent attempts by the Nutrition Laboratory to predict the 

 metabolism of male adults. By means of a multiple-prediction formula 

 derived from the analysis of the basal metabolism of 136 men, a group 

 of 31 college students was tested on this basis and the results com- 

 pared with the results of actual measurements. 1 The predictions 

 were, on the average, within 5.3 per cent, a value percepibly better 

 than the 6.3 per cent noted from the predictions with the boys. 2 

 This comparison is, however, not quite fair, since these college students 

 were nearly all 20 to 26 years of age, and were unquestionably more 

 homogeneous than a group of children ranging in age from a few months 

 to 15 years. We may still feel, therefore, that on the whole the pre- 

 diction of the metabolism of children from the curve in figure 26 is 

 not greatly inferior to that for the best existing method of prediction 

 of the values for adults. 



PREDICTED HEAT FROM TOTAL CALORIES REFERRED TO SURFACE 



(BOYS). 



In table 32 the values have also been incorporated for the heat pre- 

 dicted from the curve for total calories referred to surface as accurately 

 measured by the Du Bois method. (See fig. 38, page 161.) Giving 



1 Harris and Benedict, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 279, 1919, p. 234. 



2 The fact that Harris and Benedict computed these differences by deducting the predicted 



from the actual heat values does not affect the percentage in this case. 



