The metabolism,directly determined,of healthy children during sleep

Abstract

Through the kindness of Dr. Lusk these experiments were made in conjunction with him, Dr. Williams and Mr. Riche.

As yet experiments have been made on only two children, but the results are given on account of the interest attaching to the first direct determination of heat produced by children.

The children were healthy, were gaining weight and were fed every four hours so as to keep their metabolism as constant as possible. They were put on the portable metabolism apparatus devised by Dr. Du Bois that allows great freedom, accurate collection of all the urine and feces and no discomfort. They were kept awake during the forenoon, fed at 1 p.m. and put at once into the calorimeter where they usually slept throughout the whole experiment.

Some of the results are given in the chart. It will be seen that the amount of heat produced varied considerably from hour to hour, and that during the same hours of different days with a constant diet the heat produced is not the same. The average for the hours in which the conditions were entirely satisfactory was 14.18 calories. The metabolism directly determined compared moderately with the metabolism as calculated in about half the cases. In the other half of the cases a low respiratory quotient indicated an erroneous oxygen determination, which invalidated the calculations.