BASAL HEAT PRODUCTION IN RELATION TO GROWTH

Abstract

Most of the knowledge concerning basal heat production in infants 6 to 20 months of age has been derived from the classic study of Benedict and Talbot¹in 1921. These investigators in the course of a study of basal metabolism from birth to puberty made repeated observations on a large group of infants whose ages ranged from 6 to 20 months. In one instance as many as fifteen tests were performed on 1 subject during this period. Subsequent analyses of these data by a number of authors 2 indicated that at a point near the end of the first year of life an irregularity in heat production occurs. Opinion has differed, however, as to the role played by changes of growth rate in the production of this phenomenon and as to its relation to the increased metabolism of childhood. The principal obstacle to a solution of the problem appears