BASAL METABOLISM. 



93 



tention that the athletic habits of these individuals were sufficient 

 for them to acquire strictly athletic characteristics. Almost no evi- 

 dence of a consistently higher metabolism in the determined figures of 

 this group may be seen, but two subjects showing plus values. While 

 we are somewhat surprised that greater differences are not noted 

 between the predicted and the determined metabolism, the results are 

 perhaps to be expected when it is considered that these men were not 

 primarily athletes. The usefulness of the Harris and Benedict formula 

 for predicting the metabolism with fairly homogeneous material is here 

 demonstrated, and the results confirm the recent test of the formula in 

 the prediction of the metabolism of a group of 12 normal men, when it 

 was found that the average for the predicted total heat-output was 

 within +1.1 per cent of the average measured value. 1 



TABLE 18. Heat-production of subjects in lying position and without food, as computed from 

 respiration experiments and as predicted by the use of the Harris and Benedict formula. 



We believe that the results in tables 17 and 18 show that we are 

 dealing with normal individuals, and that these basal-metabolism 

 values may be considered as of physiological importance and their use 

 in subsequent comparisons with the results of other experiments is 

 entirely justifiable. It is to be regretted that a more extensive analysis 

 of basal measurements for these subjects, covering a greater length of 

 time and perhaps for different seasons of the year, can not be made here, 

 although other basal data for some of the subjects have actually been 

 collected. Such an analysis has recently been made by Dr. J. Arthur 

 Harris. 2 



Benedict, Miles, Roth, and Smith, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 280, 1919, p. 521. 

 2 Harris and Benedict, Journ. Biol. Chem., 1921, 46, p. 257. 



