158 GASEOUS METABOLISM OF INFANTS. 



stituted the value 11.9 which was determined by Meeh on the two 

 well-nourished infants under 1 year that he measured. 



Recognizing the importance of considering the length of the body as 

 well as the circumference of breast and abdomen, Miwa and Stoeltzner, 1 

 using Meeh's measurements, proposed another formula, in which the 

 length and circumference as well as weight should appear as factors. 

 This formula has not been generally accepted by research workers. 



Actual measurements of the body-surface of cadavers have also been 

 used in an attempt to find some mathematical formula expressing the 

 relationship between body-weight and body-surface. Lissauer 2 meas- 

 ured 12 cadavers, 11 of which were under one year, and found that the 

 constant 10.3 should be used in the Meeh formula instead of those 

 previously proposed. It has been maintained by other writers that 

 since many of Lissauer's measurements were made upon thin, poorly 

 nourished, and atrophic infants, they do not give standards for well- 

 nourished infants. SytschefT 3 measured 10 infants under one year 

 of age, but computed no ratios. Howland, 4 employing Meeh's and 

 Lissauer's measurements, has recently proposed still another method 

 for computing the body-surface based upon a curve represented by 

 the algebraic formula y = mx+b. 



With these three methods in vogue for computing the body-surface, 

 i. e. f that of Rubner and Heubner using the Meeh formula with the 

 constant 11.9; that of Lissauer using the constant 10.3; and that of 

 Howland using the algebraic curve — it can be seen that, with the great 

 weight laid by all experimenters in infant metabolism upon the relation- 

 ship between body-surface and metabolism, it is incumbent upon us 

 to present our results on the three separate bases, although the rela- 

 tive values remain unaltered in all three cases. This is done in table 

 31, 5 the plotted values being given in figures 60, 61, and 62. 



COMPARISON OF AGE AND HEAT-PRODUCTION PER SQUARE METER OF 



BODY-SURFACE. 



According to accepted ideas we should expect to find the heat-pro- 

 duction per square meter approximately constant for all of our infants, 

 i. e., not far from 1,000 calories per square meter of body-surface. 

 That this value is far from constant is seen clearly in table 31, but the 

 variations are most strikingly shown if we compare them with the age 

 of the infant, as is done in the charts in figures 60 to 62. 



In the chart in figure 60, the range in heat-production per square 

 meter of body-surface (Meeh formula) per 24 hours is very wide, the 

 lowest value being 656 calories for M. D., and the highest 1,239 calories 



*Miwa and Stoeltzner, Zeitschr. f. Biol. 1898, 36, p. 314. 

 2 Lissauer, Jahrb. f. Kinderheilk, 1902, 58, p. 392. 



3 Sytscheff, Measure of volume and body-surface of children according to their ages. Disserta- 

 tion, St. Petersburg, 1902. See, also Gundobin, loc. cit., p. 54. 

 4 See p. 22 for further explanation of this method. 

 6 See p. 143. 



