BASAL METABOLISM. 



93 



this laboratory, 1 that it must be considered as due not merely to a 

 difference in body position but also to an admittedly somewhat more 

 liberal muscular activity in the chair calorimeter as compared with 

 that in the bed calorimeter. Undue stress must not be laid upon the 

 rather remarkable agreement in the values for the heat output with the 

 subjects J. R., F. M. M., L. E. E., D. J. M., and J. J. C., in the experi- 

 ments with the chair calorimeter or upon the extraordinarily low values 

 obtained with C. H. H. and A. G. E., for the fact that the body-temper- 

 ature measurements were lacking in many of the experiments plays an 

 mportant role in the interpretation of these values. 



TABLE 35. Summary of average values for basal metabolism determined for subjects in 

 calorimeter experiments. Boston. (Amounts per hour.) 



includes all nitrogen obtained with these subjects for the periods in which the basal metab- 

 olism was determined and during any other periods without food. (See table 36.) 



2 Heat eliminated corrected for change in body-weight, but not for change in body-temperature. 



3 Subject was without food in first 3 hours of the 5 hours covered by each sample included 

 in this average. Sucrose was given at the end of 3 hours. 



For the purpose of indicating the protein metabolism of these Boston 

 subjects, we have included in table 35 average values for the nitrogen 

 excretion per hour, not only for the calorimeter experiments, but for 

 other experiments not included in this publication. The values from 

 which these averages are drawn are given in table 36. No marked 

 variation is found with the different individuals, the same subject 

 usually having approximately the same nitrogen excretion per hour under 

 the conditions of measurement employed. It is rarely that such con- 

 trasts are noted as that in the results for V. G., with whom a very small 

 excretion of nitrogen occurs on November 21, while 3 days earlier 

 almost the maximum amount is found. That this corresponds to an 

 actual difference in the protein katabolism is by no means definitely 

 assured from these figures, for the difficulty of completely emptying the 

 bladder, especially in the case of young and untrained subjects, is well 

 known to practiced experimenters. 



'Emmes and Riche, Am. Journ. Physiol., 1911, 27, p. 406. 



