674 VITALITY AND EFFICIENCY WITH RESTRICTED DIET. 



INTROSPECTIVE COMMENTS OF SUBJECTS. 



Mon. — November 10: Feels only fair; too weak; can not concentrate 

 attention. December 8: "I am weak and irritable." January 26: "For the 

 past few days I have had to go to bed early in the evening and study in the 

 morning; I have noticed the weakness more since Christmas." At the end 

 of the patellar-reflex measurements the subject was found to be asleep. 

 February 2: "The chief difficulty with the whole experiment has been the 

 sensation of being continually weak. I think this has not affected my physical 

 work quite so much as it has my studying, I have noticed repeatedly that I 

 could not seem to concentrate my attention on this sort of work." Subject 

 reports himself to have been by habit a very heavy eater before the experi- 

 ment. February 8:^ "Can study better now." 



Tom. — November 10: Thinks he is keener and can do mental work easier 

 since the experiment began. December 8: He is annoyed because the other 

 fellows urge him to take more physical work and reduce faster; says he has 

 not time to do it. "It makes a difference if one comes first in the evening 

 in the individual psychological experiment as to how you feel for sleepiness; 

 I notice the difference between now and the previous session. This is the 

 first time that I have been among the first four subjects tested in an evening." 

 December 19: "Feel fine and 'dandy' to-night; have felt pretty good all 

 along, sometimes better than at other times but that just happens anyhow." 

 February 2: "The chief inconvenience of the whole experiment has been the 

 necessity of saving urine and feces and having only one place where this 

 could be put. Besides my studies I manage the college store and am busy 

 every minute of the day. There is no time for me to think about being 

 hungry. I beheve that it is because of this extra hght physical occupation 

 that I have not noticed the hunger and unpleasantness so much as some of 

 the other subjects. As I have looked over the individuals of Squad A, I 

 believe the men who are worried the most, and seem the most irritable, are 

 those who have the least to do. Some of these subjects get through with 

 their work in the afternoon at 3 o'clock and have nothing to do until supper 

 but study and think how hungry they are. I believe that if I had to study 

 during those periods I would notice the hunger too, but I am active, having 

 to wait on customers, and subject to the demands of other people and my 

 attention is occupied." February 8: "Now on the full and uncontrolled diet 

 I am not quite so keen mentally as during the first part of the experiment. 

 Immediately after the experiment was finished and when I began eating 

 heartily again I had a tremendous tendency for drowsiness following meals 

 when attending classes. This is passing off, but has not entirely disappeared." 



Pec. — November 10: "Think I am keener mentally than when on full diet. 

 It teaches a fellow a lot, particularly how much he can stand." January 26: 

 "I am quite fit for mental work." February 2: "Am feeling rather better, 

 continually improving; think I grow more fit all the time. During the diet 

 I have not required so much sleep as usual." February 8: "I am sleeping all 

 the time now on the uncontrolled eating. During the experiment there were 

 a couple of papers on which I did not get my usual B mark, otherwise I think 

 my work was normal." We believe that Pec was throughout the entire experi- 

 ment the most optimistic subject of the entire group, but he talked the most 

 about food. 



^The reader should bear in mind as he goes over this testimony that the experiment ended 

 the morning of February 3, 1918. Any comments dated later than this were in the post-diet 

 period, when the subjects were eating uncontrolled. 



