206 VITALITY AND EFFICIENCY WITH RESTRICTED DIET. 



ditions would have been ideal. Such a selection was impossible; but 

 a number of the men in Squad A were under the normal weight at the 

 beginning of the experiment. For the purpose of showing the rela- 

 tionship between the actual weights and normal standards, we have 

 collected the body-weights of the men in Squads A and B and have 

 compared them with the so-called normal weights given in a medico- 

 actuarial mortality table.^ 



Although precautions were taken in all instances to weigh the men 

 under exactly the same conditions^ as to the absence of food in the 

 stomach and after a night without drinking-water, nevertheless the 

 possibility of retention of urine, and especially of feces, makes small 

 changes in weight entirely without significance. Accordingly, while 

 the weights are given in our tables to the tenth of a kilogram, it must 

 be recognized that differences of less than one-half kilogram are with- 

 out consequence. 



The statistics for Squad A are given in table 9, together with the 

 normal weight for age and height as taken from the Medico-Actuarial 

 Mortality Table (see colunm a) . The initial weights of the squad are 

 given in column h, and the difference between the normal and initial 

 weights in colunm c. An examination of the initial weights for Squad 

 A just prior to diet reduction as compared with the standard weights 

 (see colunm c), shows that Moy, Pec, Tom, and Fre, were measurably 

 under normal weight, although Moy was but 0.5 kg. below normal. 

 Tom, who was slender and tall, of sedentary habits, and not given to 

 athletic exercise of any kind, was 6.8 kg. less than the average weight 

 for his age and height. Pec, who was a finely trained man, 44 years of 

 age, and of a well-seasoned athletic type, was 2.2 kg. less than normal. 

 Fre dropped out of the experiment in about two weeks, so there were 

 actually but three men in the squad who were under normal weight. 

 Special attention should be given to these three men in the discussion 

 of the effects of the diet. A number of the men had a distinctly excess 

 weight, six being 4 or more kg. above normal. Can, who showed the 

 greatest difference, was the heaviest man in the squad. It is deemed of 

 particular significance that these differences between normal or average 

 body-weights and true weights are so great, with a reasonable propor- 

 tion of the men varying either one way or the other from the standard. 

 The influence of a restricted diet upon these two types of normal 

 individuals should, therefore, be instructive. 



The body-weight values for Squad B are collected in table 10, these 

 including the normal weights for age and height (column a) as drawn 



^ Medico-Actuarial Mortality Investigation. The Association of Life Insurance Medical Direc- 

 tors and The Actuarial Society of America, New York, 1912, 1, p. 38, table 4. This 

 investigation gives data as to the expectancy of life according to height and weight (see 

 vol. ii) which are somewhat inaccessible to most readers, but which fortunately have been 

 published by Dr. Joslin in his book (Joslin, Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus, 2d ed., Phila., 

 1917, p. 57). 



* See technique used in weighing subjects, outlined on p. 75. 



