274 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



cent, with an average of 134 per cent. In the two experiments in which the 

 young women stood up and immediately sat down again, it was found that 

 an energy expenditure of approximately one-third calorie was required per 

 individual and per movement for this activity. In the one experiment in 

 which the women walked about the chamber for 25 minutes at the slow rate 

 of 1.08 miles an hour, the extra energy due to the walking was 1.24 calories 

 per kilogram per hour. As the average weight of the subjects was 54 kilo- 

 grams, the activity of walking therefore required an average extra expenditure 

 of energy for each individual of 62 calories per mile. 



(8) The temperature of the human skin. F. G. Benedict, W. R. Miles, and Alice Johnson. 



Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 5, 218 (1919). 



In April 1919 a prehminary report of the study begun at the Nutrition 

 Laboratory on the temperature of the human skin was presented at the 

 meeting of the National Academy of Sciences at Washington. The apparatus 

 employed to give true records of the skin temperature consists of two copper- 

 constantan junctions, one of which is located in a constant-temperature bath, 

 with a temperature not far from 31° to 32° C, and the other is applied to the 

 skin. The latter is protected from the environmental temperature by a 

 backing of cotton and a rigid installation in hard rubber. When the junc- 

 tion is placed upon the body, it assumes the temperature of the skin in 6 

 seconds. Readings of a galvanometer in series, referred to a cahbrated 

 standard, give the direct values for the skin temperature. The subject used 

 in the study (an artist's model) was able to withstand relatively low tem- 

 peratures, without discomfort or shivering. It was thus possible to make 

 topographical studies of skin temperature with environmental temperatures 

 of 14° to 30° C. 



By moving the thermal junction at a moderately rapid rate over the skin 

 surface, and the use of a sensitive string galvanometer, temperature curves 

 were thus obtained from an infinite number of different points on the body, 

 the deflections of the galvanometer being recorded photographically. From 

 periodic observations of the skin temperature, information was obtained as 

 to the rapidity of the change in this factor after exposure of the body and also 

 as to the absolute level to which the skin temperature falls after prolonged 

 exposure to different degrees of cold. Observations were made under ordinary 

 clothing, also with the subject nude. Under the clothing the values ranged on 

 a typical day from 28.1° to 34.7° C, with a difference of 6.6° C. After ex- 

 posure of two or more hours to an environmental temperature of approxi- 

 mately 14° C, they ranged from 19.1° to 29.7° C, with a difference of 10.6° C. 

 At a temperature of 30° C, the skin temperature at various points on the body 

 showed an extreme variation of 4.2° C. 



(9) Energy requirements of children from birth to puberty. Francis G. Benedict. Boston 



Med. and Surg. Journ., 181, 107 (1919). 



In this paper, which was presented as the Shattuck lecture to the Massa- 

 chusetts Medical Society in June 1919, a history is given of the research on 

 the energy requirements of normal children which has been conducted the 

 past 8 years by the Nutrition Laboratory. Some of the infants studied, 

 notably those of wet-nurses, were followed up for several years and observa- 

 tions made from time to time, giving results for the same individual during a 

 period of rapid growth. The apparatus used is described and illustrated, 

 typical kymograph curves are given showing pulse-rate and degree of muscular 

 activity or repose, and the results obtained in the 8 years of investigation 



