In connection with the energy metabolism studies made on new-born infants, the opportunity presented itself of studying the prematurely born infant and this study was undertaken with the hope of establishing the range of the basal metabolism, and, as in the full-term normal infant, if possible, the influence of food and of crying.
The amount of work done on the basal metabolism of the premature infant, especially during the first few weeks of life, is surprisingly meager. Hasselbalch,1 in 1904, in a study of the metabolism of infants included a few cases of premature infants. In 1915, Rubner and Langstein2 studied the metabolism of two premature infants with particular reference to utilization of food; as their studies were made over twenty-four hours, the values of heat production which they give in their report include the ordinary daily activity of the infant and cannot be compared with basal heat