We note with interest that Drs. Hurst and Darrow agree that body fluid requirements of patients of differing sizes bear a simpler relation to weight raised to the two-thirds power than to weight directly.
"Surface area" is directly proportional to the two-thirds power of weight, being closely equal to weight in kg
X 0.1. We have used "surface area" thus defined as a basis for describing limits of tolerance and related physiologic data and for expressing dosages simply because this familiar body dimension has been found empirically to give reasonably satisfactory results.