94 



BENEDICT AND JOHNSON— ENERGY LOSS OF 



ing observation, for it would be expected that the effort of reading 

 aloud would be measurably greater than here indicated. 



The slight increase in metabolism due to reading aloud is of 

 even greater interest when compared to the large increments noted 

 when the subjects were singing. In these experiments the subjects 

 sang from a book of college songs or a standard hymnal used in 

 chapel. In the three experiments with fourteen to twenty women, 

 covering in all four periods, the rather irregular percentages of 17, 

 34, and 16 were obtained, with an average of 22 per cent., this being 



TABLE IL 



Percentage Increase in Metabolism of Women Due to Light Muscular 



Activity. 



Occupation. 



Number of 

 Women. 



Number 

 of Experi- 

 ments. 



Number of 

 Periods. 



Increment. 



In Indi- 

 vidual Ex- 

 periments. 



Average. 



Reading aloud . . 

 Standing quietly 

 Hemming 



Singing 



Dusting 



Sweeping 



p. ct 

 3 

 I 

 5 

 9 



16 



10 



17 



34 



16 

 126 

 121 

 156 

 139 

 161 



p. ct. 



3 



9 



13 



22 



134 

 150 



more than seven times greater than that noted when the subjects 

 were reading aloud. 



To determine the increment in the metabolism due to the labor 

 of plain sewing (henmiing), two experiments with fifteen women, 

 and covering two periods, gave 16 and 10 per cent., respectively, with 

 an average of 13 per cent. Since in this sitting occupation, the 

 bodies of the subjects remained relatively quiet and the arms alone 

 were moved, it is perhaps not surprising that the increment was no 

 greater. 



