NUTRITION LABORATORY. 275 



In this formula h equals total heat production per 24 hours, w equals weight 

 in kilograms, s equals stature in centimeters, and a age in years. Although 

 the formula was estabhshed primarily for adults (but few of the subjects 

 studied were below 20 years of age), it was found that the metabohsm of the 

 group of boys above 10 kg. could be predicted with an average deviation for 

 individual predictions of plus or minus 56 calories, or 6.3 per cent. The 

 prediction thus has an accuracy identical with that obtained by the curve 

 plotted from actual measurements. This is of considerable practical im- 

 portance as showing that the metabohsm of males ranging from boys of 10 kg. 

 up to full-grown adults, including the period of old age, may be predicted with 

 this formula with an accuracy of not far from plus or minus 6 per cent. 



(3) A respiration chamber for large domestic animals. F. G. Benedict, W. E. Collins, 



Mary F. Hendry, and Alice Johnson. Tech. Bull. No. 16, New Hampshire College 

 of Agriculture (1920). 



As a result of the development of a large respiration chamber for the study 

 of the carbon-dioxide production of groups of men and women, another 

 respiration chamber for use with large domestic animals was designed and 

 constructed at the Nutrition Laboratory and finally installed at the New 

 Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station in Durham, New Hampshire. 

 This article gives a description of the chamber and the results of a typical 

 experiment with an ox. The chamber is sufficiently large to contain a very 

 large ox. Uncontaminated outdoor air is driven into the chamber through the 

 crevices around a special double door. The air is then withdrawn and forced 

 into a wind-chest with two openings so adjusted in size that through one 90 

 per cent of the air is discharged directly into the laboratory and 10 per cent (or 

 any desired proportion) can be collected, passed through suitable absorbers for 

 carbon dioxide and water, and finally metered. The carbon dioxide absorbed 

 is directly weighed. A movable platform permits graphic record of degree of 

 repose of the animal. When weighed amounts of hquefied carbon dioxide are 

 admitted, its quantitative recovery by the apparatus can be carefully checked. 

 The apparatus has been in constant satisfactory use for two years. Its 

 practicabiHty for 24-hour tests has Hkewise been demonstrated and it has 

 been used not onlj^ for oxen but for groups of sheep. The article contains 

 several detailed diagrams and scale drawings. 



(4) Notes on the use of the portable respiration apparatus. Francis G. Benedict. Boston 



Med. and Surg. Joum., 182, 243 (1920). 



A number of studies have been made of certain factors connected with the 

 rather extensive use of the portable respiration apparatus, and opportunity is 

 taken in this paper to answer a number of questions that have been raised by 

 investigators employing the apparatus. Particular attention is called to the 

 necessity for scrupulous cleanliness T\ath regard to the electric fan or hair-drier 

 which moves the ventilating current of air. A substitute external method 

 for ventilating the system is suggested. Finally, a warning is given against 

 over-emphasis of the significance of deviations from the so-called normal, since 

 in a recent study of 17 unpracticed, presumably normal, medical students 

 it was found that two showed a metabohsm of 14 or more per cent below 

 so-called normal and one a metabolism of 11.5 per cent above so-called nor- 

 mal. A definite statement is made that there is no inflexible standard for 

 normal metabolism for any given age, weight, height, and sex from which all 

 normal indi\aduals never vary. 



