Although standard values for basal oxygen consumption have been fairly well established for adults, the same cannot be said for children, particularly during adolescence. The following report of metabolism tests made on the same subjects at six month intervals over the age range of 11.5 to 18 years represents an attempt to add to the information concerning the physiology of normal adolescents. Because of individual differences in rate of physiologic maturation, too much weight cannot be given to such average curves. Nevertheless they will serve as a background against which to project individual growth patterns. With this aim in view the results of semiannual measurements of basal oxygen consumption of 50 normal girls and 50 normal boys, members of the University of California Adolescent Growth Study,1 are presented.
EXPERIMENTAL MATERIAL AND PROCEDURE
Subjects.—The subjects for the cumulative study (50 girls and 50 boys) were chosen from five elementary