Basal Metabolism. 



3ii 



Lusk in 1913 4 showed that sleeping dogs could produce as low- 

 as 750 calories, while Benedict and Talbot in 1915 5 found the 

 average heat production per unit of surface of 105 new-born 

 infants was 612 calories. 



In 1 92 1 Benedict and Talbot 6 constructed a curve of the metab- 

 olism from birth to puberty from studies based on a new series 

 of 256 infants and children, see following chart. This shows a 

 rapid increase from 612 calories in new-born infants to 1,170 cal- 

 ories in boys of about one year of age, weighing 1 1 kilograms. 



During the past year we have studied, with the assistance of 

 Miss Margaret Moriarty and Mrs. A. J. Dalrymple, the heat 

 production of 22 premature infants. Since premature infants 

 have proportionally more body surface per unit of weight than 

 larger subjects, they should produce more heat per unit of surface. 

 On the contrary, our studies show quite the reverse. The average 

 heat production per unit of surface of the 22 premature infants 

 studied was 597.3 calories in 24 hours. We have included in this 

 group premature infants of 3 days to 3 months of age. A critical 

 analysis will be made of these cases later, but it seems probable 

 that the few older infants of this series will fall in the category 

 of malnutrition, in which the metabolism is usually high. 



Six of these 22 infants were studied during the first 1 1 days 

 of life and in these instances the metabolism was extraordinarily 

 low. They are represented in the lower part of the chart by dots 

 inside the light line. 



This data is presented as further evidence that Rubner's law 

 of the constant relationship between heat production and body 

 surface is not a physiological law, and that it does not hold true in 

 infants. 



141 (1888) 



Studies on salt action. IV. The mutual influence of acidity and 

 salt concentration upon bacteria. 



By C.-E. A. WINSLOW and I. S. FALK. 



[From the Department of Public Health, Yale School of Medicine, 

 New Haven, Conn] 



Four years ago 1 we presented certain preliminary results of 



* Lusk, Jour. Biol. Chem., 1913, xiii, 450. 



6 Benedict and Talbot, Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 233. 

 8 Benedict and Talbot, Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication No. 302. 

 1 Winslow and Falk, Proc. Soc. Exp. Biol., 1918, xv, 67. 



