760 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol.41 



Pacific slope species of poison ivy {Rhus diversiloba) . He also records the 

 feeding of the siilder mite {Tetranychns telarius) on poison Ivy in the vicinity 

 of Corvallls, Oreg., likewise a leaf roller. 



FOODS— HUMAN NXTTRITION. 



A biometric study of basal metabolism in man, J. A. Harris and F. G. 

 Benedict (Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. 279 (1919), pp. ¥1+266, figs. 30).— The 

 purpose of this study is expressed by the authors as " to present the results 

 of a first attempt to analyze the data of basal metabolism in normal men and 

 women by the higher statistical or biometric formulas." 



The unfamiliarity of most physiologists with biometric methods and the rela- 

 tive paucity of data on basal metabolism are believed to be responsible for the 

 slowness with which the higher statistical methods have been applied to this 

 field of research. The data accumulated from experiments on basal metabolism 

 in the Nutrition Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution now comprise those for 

 age, body weight, pulse rate, and gaseous exchange, together with computed 

 heat production for 136 male and 103 female adults, and represent a non- 

 negligible contribution to the problem of human metabolism. They are here 

 statistically analyzed by biometric methods, the principles underlying the 

 establishment on them of standard basal metabolism constants are discussed, 

 and standard multiple prediction tables for normal basal metabolism are 

 worked out. These tables are based on the factor of body weight, with cor- 

 rection factors for age and stature, and are given for men and women sepa- 

 rately. The authors summarize the plan and significance of the study as 

 " to emphasize the necessity for the establishment of statistical normal basal 

 metabolism standards, which may serve as a basis of comparison in all special 

 nutritional investigations; to supply convenient tables of such standards based 

 on the most extensive series of normal data as yet available; to illustrate the 

 practical use of such tables in the solution of problems in nutritional 

 physiology." 



" Biologically the most rational and practically tbe most satisfactory standard 

 is that secured by taking into account the body weight, stature, and age of the 

 .subject in predicting basal metabolism. This method is therefore an extension 

 and modification of the selected-group method, employed earlier at the Nutri- 

 tion Laboratory, In the new method, which we have designated as the multiple- 

 prediction method [the authors], replace the empirical determinations of the 

 metabolism of individuals of specific weight, stature, and age by values given 

 jjy multiple-prediction equations based on the statistical constants of all avail- 

 able normal data. These equations have been tabled for both men and women 

 for a range of weight, stature, and age which will be met in practical work with 

 adult subjects, and give a set of multiple-prediction tables of standard normal 

 adult basal metabolism constants. 



" The illustrations of the practical application of these multiple-prediction 

 tables show first of all their great usefulness in the detection of differences 

 between series of metabolism measurements. Thus, as far as [the authors] 

 are aware, the anomalous nature of the series of determinations by Magnus- 

 Levy and Falk and those by Palmer, IVIeans, and Gamble has heretofore quite 

 escaped the notice of physiologists, and their data have been combined freely 

 with other series for the purpose of generalization. The aberrant nature of 

 these series becomes evident as soon as comparison of the actual mensurements 

 with th.e theoretical values from the multiple-prediction tables is made. 



