A Height-Weight Formula. 



77 



45 ("09) 



A height-weight formula to estimate the surface area of man. 



By Delafield Du Bois and E. F. Du Bois. 



[From the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology in Affiliation with the 

 Second Medical Division, Bellevue Hospital.] 



Using the method previously described before this society, 1 

 it has been possible, with the aid of Miss Sawyer and Mr. Stone, 

 to measure the surface area of a total of 10 individuals. The 

 "Linear Formula" previously described, when applied to these, 

 gives an average error of 1.5 per cent. The chief limitation of the 

 "Linear Formula" is that it involves the taking of 19 measure- 

 ments. In the literature of the respiratory metabolism already 

 published the only data given in regard to most of the subjects are 

 the height and weight. 



On the basis of the actual measurement of the surface of 10 

 subjects of widely varying shape, formulas have been constructed 

 on the plan of A = W- Ia X H llb X C, in which A is the surface 

 area in square cm., W is the weight in kilograms and H the height 

 in cm. and C a constant. Various formulas were tried, care being 

 taken that 3 /a + l/b should always equal 2 in order that the for- 

 mula might remain bi-dimensional. The formula A = W 1 ! 3 

 Xff' 1 X C gave an average error of ± 3.3 per cent. The formula 

 A = W 1 ^ X H 112 X C gave an average error of 2.2 per cent. It 

 was evident that values for i/a somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 

 would give better results. By a rather lengthy process of calcula- 

 tion it was found that the average error could be reduced to 1.7 

 per cent, if the formula were made A = W 1 ! 2 - 35 X H 1 ' 1 - 3 * X C. 

 The calculation is not difficult if logarithms be used but a chart 

 has been devised by means of which it is possible to estimate 

 the surface area at a glance. The ordinates represent the height 



Hospital Medical College, to whom we here express our sincere thanks. He found 

 the macroscopic and microscopic evidences of emphysema, with the exception of 

 increase in connective tissue. There were also areas resembling infarctions probably 

 due to rhexis as a result of the increased blood pressure in the pulmonary circuit. 



1 D. Du Bois and E. F. Du Bois, Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol, and Med., 1914, XII, 

 16; Arch. Int. Med., 1915, XV, 868. 



