SCIENTIFIC PROCEEDINGS. 



Abstracts of Communications. 



One hundred twenty-third meeting. 



The College of the City of New York, April 19, 1922. 

 President Wallace in the chair, 



140 (1887) 



Basal metabolism in relation to body surface at different ages 

 with special reference to prematurity. 



By FRITZ B. TALBOT and WARREN R. SISSON. 



[From the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass.] 



In 1902 Rubner 1 brought forth evidence that the heat loss of 

 the body was proportional to its surface area. This became known 

 as Rubner's law of surface area. The principle was not new as 

 half a century earlier Regnault and Reiset noted that the heat 

 production of sparrows per unit of weight was ten times greater 

 than that of fowls, and concluded that it was due to the fact that 

 the smaller animals had a relatively larger body surface, and, 

 consequently, lost more heat than larger animals, with relatively 

 less surface. In 1913 Rubner 2 presented further evidence to 

 show that the even heat production per unit of body surface was 

 not dependent on the active tissues within the organism. 



In 1908 Schlossmann and Murschhauser 3 in their investiga- 

 tions, in which the effect of muscular exercise on the metabolism 

 was eliminated, found that instead of the 1,000 calories per square 

 meter of body surface, absolutely quiet healthy infants produced 

 only 866 calories in 24 hours. 



Rubner, "Die Gesetze des Energieverbrauchs bei der Ernahrung," Leipzig 

 and Vienna, 1902. 



8 Rubner, Arch. f. Physiol., 1913, p. 240. 



8 Schlossmann and Murschhauser, Biochem. Zeitschr., 1908, xiv, 385. 



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