634 



JOHN K. MUKLIjST 



TABLE 28 



METABOLISM BEFORE AND AFTER PARTURITION. THE METABOLISM OF THE CHILD WAS 

 . DETERMINED BY DIFFERENCE 



* Child cried during experiments. 



The average heat production for women between 20 and 50 years, according 

 to Benedict and Emmes, is 32.3 calories per square meter. Xow the still 

 more remarkable fact is that the metabolism of the child (determined by 

 difference between the metabolism of mother and child taken together and 

 mother alone) with an average body weight of 3.10 kilos is 33.4 calories 

 per square meter of body surface exactly the same as that of the mother 

 whether before or after parturition. A more striking agreement in ac- 

 cordance with the law of surface area would indeed be difficult to find. 

 A woman heavy with child, the same woman immediately after delivery, 

 the child itself, and normal non-pregnant women differing enormously in 

 weight and showing a metabolism per unit of weight differing two and a 

 half times have the same metabolism when this is reckoned on the basis of 

 surface. The agreement, in fact, is too close to represent the exact truth, 

 except for the circumstances presented by chance in these particular ex- 

 periments. We now know from the further work of Murlin and Hoobler 

 as well as that of Benedict and Talbot that the exact age makes a measur- 

 able difference in ; both the newborn and older infants. Nevertheless it 

 holds as a substantial statement of the facts that the metabolism of the 

 young infant (two weeks to two months of age) on the basis of surface 

 area is the same as that of the adult. It is now known that the level of 

 metabolism of the newborn less than one week of age is considerably lower 

 than that of the adult. This discovery was made simultaneously by Bene- 

 dict and Talbot, and Bailey and Murlin, though it was emphasized first 



