46 VITALITY AND EFFICIENCY WITH RESTRICTED DIET. 



committee of the faculty. He furthermore understands that at the conclusion 

 of the research he will be requested to make affidavit, on his honor as a gentle- 

 man, to the fidelity with which he has lived up to the regulations of the research, 

 the careful reading of which is attested by signature to this instrument." 



Although there were certain physiological controls on the strict 

 adherence to diet, in the last analysis it would be necessary to rely upon 

 the honor of the men. With the magnificent college spirit and the high 

 ethical standards obtaining in this college, one might at the outset 

 assume without further evidence that the greatest fidelity and honesty 

 of purpose would be assured. According to the honor system which 

 was in active operation in the college, a subject would be in honor 

 bound not to violate the conditions of the experiment and likewise in 

 honor bound to report any known violation by fellow members of the 

 squad. 



The importance of absolute fidelity in the dietetic control can hardly 

 be overestimated. For instance, if the record of the protein intake 

 were not complete, due to the fact that the subject took excess food 

 away from the training table, the nitrogen balance, which has assumed 

 much prominence in this research, would be invalidated. Similarly if 

 there were an incomplete collection of urine, the computation of the 

 nitrogen balance would not be accurate. If, however, there were 

 marked fluctuations in the nitrogen excretion in the urine which could 

 not be accounted for by similar fluctuations in the nitrogen of the diet, 

 it would be reasonable to suspect an infringement of the rules. Of 

 course it would have been possible for a subject to take excess protein 

 food and designedly give incomplete returns for the total urine excreted 

 or report that the urine was lost, but we are certain that no such 

 instance occurred. 



It is, however, with the energy balance that the personal veracity of 

 each man is the more important, for an energy balance computed from 

 the measurement of the intake of food and the output in the urine and 

 feces can have no value without the assurance that the measurement 

 of the energy in the diet agrees with the actual daily intake. Without 

 this assurance, the whole study from the standpoint of energy, which 

 is of fundamental importance in this research, would be useless. Thus 

 we see that the honor, personal integrity, and fldelity of our subjects 

 are the greatest assets that we could have in the selection of a group of 

 men for this type of experimentation. 



We should here assert our belief in the honor and fldelity of these 

 men. Throughout the entire four months of the investigation there 

 was but one suspected violation of the rules. This was early in the 

 series when there was a marked increase in the nitrogen excretion on 

 one day with one subject, which was coincident with certain social 

 functions. This led us to consider the possibility that the man had 

 violated his agreement, although no report was made of it. Instead of 

 making the direct charge, we argued that if he had violated the agree- 



