A method of collecting total excreta in infants.

It has recently been stated (Sheldon, 1949) that none of the methods described for conducting ' balance ' experiments on incontinent children have as yet proved satisfactory. We are prompted, therefore, to describe the method which we have employed for some time in this hospitaL A special type of bed is used, designed on the principle of the metabolic cage for animal experiments. It consists of a wooden cot with solid sides and ends, with a removable grid-mattress constructed of interlaced rubber tubing stretched in a wooden frame. Below the mattress is a funnelshaped zinc collecting chamber, the outlet pipe of which can be inserted into a colecting vessel. The bed was made in the hospital workshop (Figs. 1, 2, and 3). The bed is used in a side room where the temperature is kept at 90' F., and the child is unclothed except for a short vest. The head pillow is mackintosh-covered (in case of vomiting) and lies directly on the rubber grid. On this, and under the child, is a mackintosh sheet which stops at the child's mid-lumbar region. If required, a harness can be worn, the ties being passed through holes in the sides of the bed and fixed to brackets on the outside. Practically all the excreta automatically pass into the bottle undeneath the bed, and any that adhere to the grid or collecting chamber can be easily washed into the receiving bottle with distilled water, without much disturbing the child. Separate urine specimens were collected by indwelling catheterization in the female and in the male by connecting a rubber tube to the penis by a finger stall. These methods were found more satisfactory for the age group which we studied than the method described by Thomson (1944). The separation of specimens in the female was limited to periods of 24 hours.