Abstract
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 investigations, 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.
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 I05 new-born infants was 612 calories.
In 192 I Benedict and Talbot 6 constructed a curve of the metabolism 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 calories in boys of about one year of age, weighing 11 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.
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