CLINICAL CALORIMETRY

Abstract

In order to establish more fully the law that the total body metabolism is proportional to the surface area, it is important to establish the law not only for people of normal size and shape, but also for those who are deformed. If the body surface be a true index of the metabolism, and if the body surface be accurately measured, then dwarfs or men with their legs cut off would show proportionally the same basal metabolism per square meter of surface as do normally shaped individuals. But if this relationship holds, is the increase in heat production which follows the ingestion of large quantities of meat the same as in persons of normal shape? It was to try to answer these questions that this series of dwarfs and legless men were studied in the Sage calorimeter at Bellevue Hospital. THE BASAL METABOLISM OF MEN OF