DISCUSSION OF RESULTS. 65 



INFLUENCE OF FOOD AND BODY POSITION. 



In this preliminary study of subject I, we have two main factors to be 

 considered, namely, the influence of food and of body position. 



Influence of food. We have only three experiments in which obser- 

 vations were made of the standing metabolism of subject I after the 

 ingestion of food. Singularly enough, the average on each of these 

 three days shows that the heat output after the ingestion of food when 

 measured with the subject in the standing position was the same in all 

 of the experiments, i. e., 1.61 calories. (See table 6.) As we have no 

 basal value without food which was determined on these three days, we 

 must be content to note that the average basal value of 1.34 calories was 

 increased 0.27 calorie per minute as the result of the ingestion of food, 

 an increment of approximately 20 per cent. It is thus clear that prior 

 to the actual walking tests after meals, the subject has a noticeably 

 larger basal metabolism than prior to the walking experiments in the 

 morning in the post-absorptive condition. The intelligent use of these 

 basal values after food is a subject of subsequent discussion. 



Influence of position. In his experiments with subject I in December 

 1914, Mr. Higgins also obtained data regarding the metabolism of this 

 subject in the standing position. Any comparison of these values with 

 those obtained by us a year earlier for the same position would be a 

 violation of a fundamental principle in the computation of metabo- 

 lism experiments, notwithstanding the facts that the difference in the 

 body weight is but 2 kilograms and that the values obtained for the 

 metabolism in both cases were extraordinarily constant. Neverthe- 

 less, in the hope of throwing some light on the probable increment in 

 the metabolism to be expected from this man, when standing, we 

 have included in table 5 (page 63) Mr. Higgins's results of December 

 1914 for the standing position. 



The observations on December 2 show an average heat output for the 

 standing position of 1.39 calories per minute, but three days later 

 (December 5) , when the conditions were apparently identical, the heat 

 output was but 1.29 calories per minute. Using the average values for 

 the resting (lying) metabolism on the same days, we note an increase in 

 the heat output on December 2 from 1 .23 calories to 1 .39 calories and 

 on December 5 from 1.22 calories to 1.29 calories, the average increase 

 being from 1.225 calories to 1.34 calories. This is equivalent to an 

 average increment of 0.115 calorie, or approximately 9 per cent, due to 

 the changing of the position from lying to standing. Since the average 

 value of 1.225 calories for the metabolism in the lying position is true 

 not only for the two days referred to but also for an extensive series of 

 experiments made by Mr. Higgins on this subject in 1914, and since 

 the average of the two standing experiments made by the same observer 

 is identical with the average of the long series of standing experiments 

 made one year previous by Dr. Tigerstedt, we may properly maintain 



