Recent advances in the practical application of indirect calorimetry have rendered it possible for the physician to measure accurately and fairly readily under standard conditions one of the most fundamental phenomena of life, namely, the rate at which the life process of combustion is proceeding within the body. Calorimetry, like the taking of the temperature, is a measurement of certain heat phenomena. Just as the thermometer has furnished the means of distinguishing accurately and readily two great classes of diseases, the febrile and the afebrile, indirect calorimetry similarly allows precise differentiation of three large groups of diseases: (1) diseases characterized by a normal rate of metabolism; (2) diseases characterized by an increased rate of metabolism, and (3) diseases characterized by a decreased rate of metabolism. Furthermore, just as there are various diseases with abnormal temperatures, there are several diseases that have per se abnormal basal metabolic rates. So far the most clearly defined groups of cases with abnormal basal metabolic rates are those due to disturbances in the functional activity of the thyroid gland.
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Walter M. Boothby (1921) studied this question.