650 



JOHN K. MURLIN 



chart) rises nearly parallel with the growth in weight, after which the 

 metabolism rises less rapidly than the weight. It is evident from the curve 

 representing metabolism per unit of weight, however, that the parallelism 

 is only apparent and arises from the fact that metabolism and weight are 

 plotted to ordinates which are not strictly proportional; for the metab- 

 olism per kilogram falls from the beginning instead of running hori- 

 zontally. The level at five months is 60 calories per kilogram and at 24 

 months it has dropped to 38 calories. From this point onward the 

 curve is horizontal indicating that the progress in growth is equal to the 

 progress in basal heat production. Charted on the basis of a unit of body 



TOTAL CALORIES REFERRED TO WEIGHT. 



20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 



Fig. 39. Basal heat production of boys from birth to puberty. Total calories per 24 

 hours referred to weight (Benedict and Talbot). 



surface (DuBois' linear formula) the general trend again is downward 

 from 1086 calories at 5 months to 841 at 24 months from which time it 

 rises to nearly 900 calories per square meter at 41 months. Figure 39 

 gives the progress of the basal metabolism in relation to weight for boys and 

 Fig. 40 the same for girls for the entire series of children studied. The 

 continuous line represents the average ; dots individual cases. In the 

 first of these charts it may be seen that the basal metabolism in boys as 

 determined by the most recent observations runs from a little less than 100 

 calories daily at 2 kilos body weight to 1325 calories at 42 kilos or 

 from about 45 to about 31 calories per kilogram. With girls the curve 

 starts at a slightly lower level at 2 kilos and rises to 1100 calories 

 daily at 32 kilos, or from about 40 to about 34 calories per kilo- 

 gram. The values obtained by Benedict and Talbot are lower than 

 those obtained by any previous observers except Olin. Curves of the same 



