DEVELOPMENT OF NUTRITION INVESTIGATIONS. 453 



ORGANIZATION OF THE NUTRITION INQUIRY. 



When the nutrition investigations of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture were authorized tlieir general supervision was assigned by the 

 Secretary of Agriculture to the Office of Experiment Stations, the 

 immediate direction of the enterprise being intrusted to Prof. W. O. 

 Atwater, who was designated '* Chief of Nutrition Investigations." 



For many years Prof. Atwater, in connection with his work as 

 professor of chemistry at "Wesleyan University, devoted much of his 

 time to investigations relating to the nutrition of man, introducing 

 into the United States the German methods of studying nutrition 

 problems. The first nutrition investigations undertaken in an agri- 

 cultural experiment station in this country were conducted at the 

 Connecticut (Storrs) Agricultural Experiment Station, of which he 

 was the first director. He was also the first director of the Office of 

 Experiment Stations, and after his services in this capacity had 

 terminated the Department of Agriculture was very fortunate in 

 securing his cooperation as special agent in charge of its nutrition 

 investigations. The very great development of this enterprise, as 

 evidenced by the number and extent of the investigations carried on; 

 the public interest which was aroused ; the demand for information 

 from private individuals, physicians, and teachers; and the practical 

 application of the results already obtained in numerous instances 

 where rational and economical feeding was a necessity, are indica- 

 tions that he established the investigations on a sound and rational 

 basis. 



Prof. Atwater's death occurred in 1907 after a long-continued illness- 

 Until ill health prevented he had continued his supervision of the 

 nutrition investigations and was responsible for the plans and general 

 direction of the work. A large amount of experimental work was 

 also carried on under Prof. Atwater's immediate supervision in his 

 laboratory in the chemical department of Wesleyan University, the 

 Connecticut (Storrs) Experiment Station being a generous con- 

 tributor to the enterprise. As time progressed and the correspond- 

 ence and other business arrangements connected with the nutrition 

 investigations developed, it became evident that the enterprise as a 

 whole should be centered in Washington, and at the beginning of 

 the fiscal year 1906-7 suj^ervision of the details of the nutrition in- 

 vestigations and other administrative work was transferred to the 

 Office of Experiment Stations in Washington. 



In the later years in which the Department of Agriculture nutri- 

 tion investigations were conducted in Prof. Atwater's laboratory at 

 Wesleyan University, the Carnegie Institution cooperated in the 

 enterprise to a large extent. A^Hien it was finally decided in 1906 to 



