BASAL KATABOLISM. 



99 



siderable number of the points lie within 10 per cent of the average 

 value of 42 calories. If we draw lines at 38 and 46 to represent these 

 limits of variation, we find that 13 values lie outside of the limits on the 

 one side and 18 values on the other, there being in all some 33 per cent 

 of the total number outside of the limits of variation. To indicate a 

 true average value for a living organism on the basis of weight alone 

 appears, therefore, to be extremely difficult, for even with these normal 

 new-born infants, which are presumably more directly comparable 

 than any other class of human beings, we still find wide variations. 



5.0 



FIG. 5. Minimum heat-production of new-born infants per kilogram per 24 

 hours referred to the body-weight. 



MINIMUM HEAT-OUTPUT PER SQUARE METER PER 24 HOURS. 



Since the cube root of the square of the body-weight represents the 

 general law of growth, and since physiologists, basing their belief upon 

 the observations of Bergmann, 1 Rubner, 2 and Richet, 3 have been 

 inclined to ascribe a particular significance to the relationship between 

 the body-surface and the metabolism, the results computed on the 

 basis of the heat-output per square meter of body-surface per 24 hours 

 have been included in table 12. In our earlier publication 4 it was 



Bergmann and Leuckart, Anatomisch-physiol. Uebersicht des Thierreichs, Stuttgart, 1852, 

 p. 272. See also, Bergmann, Ueber die Verhaltnisse der Warmeokonomie der Thiere zu ihrer 

 G rosso, Gottingen, 1848, p. 9. 



2 Rubner, Zeitschr. f. Biol., 1883, 19, p. 545. 



3 Richet, Archives de Physiol. norm, et path., 1885, 15, 3d ser., p. 237. 



'Benedict and Talbot, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 201, 1914, p. 166; Benedict and Talbot, 

 Am. Journ. Diseases of Children, 1914, 8, p. 48. 



