The Basal Metabolism of Prematurity

The object of the present study, commenced two years ago, was to gain further knowledge of the premature infant, and, if possible, to establish the physiologic basis for the nutritional requirements of these infants. A review of the literature showed that few studies had been made on the metabolism of premature infants. Some of these studies cannot be accurately interpreted because of differences in technical methods. This is particularly true of Rubner and Langstein's¹and Weiss' cases.²The investigations of Hasselbalch,³although carried out with a slightly different technic, are comparable, because they were obtained under basal conditions. The cases reported by Fleming, Murlin and Marsh⁴and Benedict and Talbot⁵are strictly comparable. So far as we know, there have been no comprehensive studies of the basal metabolism of prematurity before the present series and the one subsequently reported by Murlin. Most of the data