Of those laboratory tests useful in the diagnosis of certain forms of disease, perhaps none is more valuable to the clinician than the recent test devised to measure basal metabolism.
The sudden interest which the test has stimulated among clinicians has spread with surprising rapidity, perhaps for the reason that, from the standpoint of efficiency in the differentiation of certain disease, its results are so spectacular in uniformity and conclusiveness. Moreover, it was just this rapid spread of interest in the test which has so effectually confirmed its usefulness as a diagnostic aid. The question as to its value, so far, has been singularly free from controversy.
Lusk1 and his associates, on the basis of very accurate and elaborate measurements, have emphasized chiefly the scientific aspects of the test.
The problem of making the test available to those clinicians not having access to the elaborate equipment of the nutritions laboratory