52 



Journal of Agricultural Research 



Vol. XIII, No. X 



In all these experiments the body surface was computed by the Meeh 

 formula. D. and E. F. DuBois {lo) have shown that the use of this 

 formula gives too high results for the body surface of man as compared 

 with direct measurement or with their "linear formula" and have also 

 devised (//) a "height-weight chart " for the computation of body surface. 



Recomputing Bene- 

 dict's and Mean's re- 

 sults by this latter 

 method, Gephart and 

 E. F. DuBois (7j) 

 estimate the mean 

 basal katabolism to 

 be 38.97 Calories per 

 square meter per 

 hour for 88 men and 

 36.9 Calories per 

 square meter per 

 hour for 68 women. 

 Correcting the figures 

 of Table VII in this 

 proportion the basal 

 katabolism per 24 

 hours and the prob- 

 able errors are as 

 shown in Table VIII. 

 Considering that 



FlO. 6. — Graph of the frequency distribution of the basal katabolism of 

 cattle per square meter of body surface standing 24 hours. 



these means represent a condition of minimum muscular activity they 

 show a rather striking approximation to that for cattle in the lying 

 position but otherwise free to move. 



RESULTS ON THE HOG AND THE HORSE 



Determinations of the basal katabolism of swine have been reported by 

 Meissl, Strohmer, and Lorenz {i6) and by Tangl {i8), while Fingeriing, 

 Kohler, and Reinhardt {12) have computed it from a comparison of the 

 gains made at two different ages and weights by growing pigs. Their 

 results per square meter of body surface (estimated by Meeh's formula, 

 using for k the value 9.02 found by Hecker for the horse) are recorded in 

 Table IX. In both Tangl's and Fingerling's experiments the animals 

 spent most of the time in the lying position. Meissl makes no statement 

 on this point. 



