122 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE NEW-BORN INFANT. 



or less exposure and a lowering of the body-temperature in bathing the 

 infant, especially in a room of ordinary temperature, there is good 

 reason for believing that the bath should be omitted on the first day 

 and the infant should be simply oiled. This precaution may be espe- 

 cially applicable in the case of poorly-nourished, weak, or premature 

 infants. The baby should also be kept warm with artificial heat, hot- 

 water bottles commonly being used. With the infants in our observa- 

 tions a warm environment was produced inside the respiration chamber 

 by raising the temperature of the water-jacket surrounding it. The 

 fact that the body-temperature rose in many of the observations with 

 the respiration chamber, especially on the first day, would indicate 

 that the conditions were favorable for conserving the energy output 

 during the first hours after birth, when the heat regulation of the body 

 was markedly imperfect. 



Yet another reason for the excess muscular activity during these 

 first days of an infant's life may be the actual need of food, for certain 

 muscular movements are always associated with hunger. The methods 

 for supplying this need are, however, more properly discussed in con- 

 nection with the quantitative relations of the energy intake. 



THE ENERGY INTAKE. 



The results obtained in our study of the new-born infant show that 

 the energy requirements during the first week of life are by no means 

 small. While these requirements are not so large per kilogram of 

 body-weight and per square meter of body-surface as has been com- 

 monly supposed, nevertheless there is a considerable draft upon body- 

 material, at least during the early days of an infant's life, and it is not 

 true that the body has a superabundant supply of glycogen available 

 for this excessive draft upon its material. As has already been noted, 1 

 while there is a moderate amount of glycogen present in the body of 

 an infant, this can be rapidly depleted and essentially fasting quotients 

 found after 24 hours. This is especially the case if the infant attempts 

 by muscular activity to increase the body-temperature. While on the 

 first day, at least, the muscular activity would not probably be suffi- 

 cient to compensate for the low temperature, it would tend to deplete 

 the moderate store of glycogen, thus producing a condition approaching 

 complete inanition, with the possibility of developing an acidosis. It 

 would appear, therefore, that nature has made no unusual provision 

 for supplying a quickly available fuel asset in the form of body glycogen. 



Furthermore, the normal supply of food-material from the breast 

 of the civilized, parturient woman during the first few days of the 

 infant's life is admittedly much less than is actually needed for mainte- 

 nance. The colostrum and the milk during the first week or ten days 

 following the birth of the child have been analyzed by a number of 



pages 84 and 88. 



