278 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



personal h} T giene which will be considered in this paper. It will be dis- 

 cussed in its relation to the development of efficient social personality 

 in the home. 



We trace first the development of public sentiment in regard to the 

 importance of food suitable to maintain the body in a state of efficiency 

 and health. 



Distinct progress in the study of the foods necessary for the body was 

 made when chemists and physiologists began to work hand in hand in 

 their investigations. Liebig (1803-1873) took a step in advance when 

 he declared that protein foods are the source of energy and his state- 

 ments held sway for many years until they were overthrown by experi- 

 mental evidence. Fick, who in 1865, made an ascent of the Faulhorn 

 on a diet entirely without protein did much to overthrow Liebig's 

 theory. 2 



Other original investigations followed, for the necessity of experi- 

 mental evidence had by that time been fully established, until we come 

 to the name of Karl von Voit, who in his studies in metabolism, sought 

 to learn the kinds and quantities of food used by people of different 

 occupations. 3 



Professor Atwater, lately deceased, contributed much by original 

 studies to the subject of diet and nutrition in our own country. 4 

 But the most scholarly and thorough investigations in this country 

 on the subject of diet in its relation to the actual necessities of the body 

 have been carried on by Dr. Chittenden, professor of physiological 

 chemistry at Yale University and director of the Sheffield Scientific 

 - School. 5 In these he has sought to establish by a series of accurate tests 

 of sufficient number to warrant conclusions the minimum requirements 

 of food for the body under certain conditions. He sought to determine 

 the real physiological needs of the body for food in order that energy 

 may be furnished and tissue be built up and replaced. 



These data furnished by the chemists and the physiologists con- 

 cerning the food necessities for individual welfare, the sociologist makes 

 use of in his study of society, for a society can be no more potent than 

 is the personality of the individuals who compose it. Hence, as Pro- 

 fessor Giddings says, " The supreme result of efficient social organi- 

 zation and the supreme test of efficiency is the development of the 

 social man." 6 



2 Gesammelte Schrif ten von Adolf Fick, ' ' Ueber die Entstehung der Muskel- 

 kraft," Band 2. 



8 Von Voit, "Physiologie des Allgemeinen Stoffwechsels und der Er- 

 naehrung. ' ' 



4 Atwater, "Foods, Nutritive Value and Cost," "Food and Diet," and 

 others, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



6 Chittenden, "Physiological Economy in Nutrition," 1904; Chittenden, 

 "The Nutrition of Man," 1907. F. A. Stokes Co. 



6 Giddings, ' ' Inductive Sociology, ' ' p. 248. 



