H4 RESPIRATORY EXCHANGE OF ANIMALS AND MAN 



jects of approximately the same weight and height (and consequently 

 the same surface) but very different age. They obtained the results 



TABLE XXVI. 



given in Table XXVI, but as individuals of the same age and stature 

 may also have very different standard metabolisms, these experiments 

 are inconclusive. 



Magnus-Levy and Falk believe that their results show that the 

 oxidative energy of the " protoplasm," as distinct from reserve ma- 

 terial and connective tissue, is greater in the growing organism than 

 in the adult and decreases with old age, but they are careful to point 

 out the possible sources of fallacy arising from the fact that in old age 

 the relative amount of inactive tissue increases. That the view of 

 Magnus-Levy and Falk is fallacious can be shown very clearly when 

 their results are compared with those obtained on younger children. 

 In such the metabolism per square metre is distinctly lower though 

 the rate of growth is certainly more rapid. Thus Scherer [1896] 

 found per square metre and minute for children up to 1 8 days an 

 oxygen absorption of 65 to 96 c.c. Forster [1882] for a child of 60 

 days 107 c.c., and Schlossmann and Murschhauser [1909] for one and 

 the same child when 144 days old (weight 5790 gr.) 128 c.c., when 

 284 days old (weight 8450 gr.) 129 c.c., and when 380 days old 

 (weight 8930 gr.) 133 c.c., while Magnus- Levy and Falk's average 

 figures are 150 c.c. for a boy of 2\ years, 131 for a boy of 6 years, and 

 91 for a man between 27 and 43 years. 



The results of Scherer are not very accurate, and the very low 

 respiratory quotients found by him on new-born children are certainly 

 erroneous, but some quite reliable determinations have been made by 

 Hasselbalch [1904] on such children, and published in Danish. Has- 

 selbalch's results show that the standard metabolism of young children, 

 though higher per kilogram than the standard metabolism of adults, is 

 distinctly lower when calculated per square metre. 



