680 VITALITY AND EFFICIENCY WITH RESTRICTED DIET. 



It must be remembered that these subjects were men, inteUigent, 

 and quite capable of forming independent judgment. They became 

 to a great extent a gregarious group ; there was a good deal of the spirit 

 of caste and group pride. This engendered a certain amount of com- 

 bative spirit not favorable for the operation of suggestions from the 

 outside. Comment is practically unanimous as to the change in mental 

 attitude and disposition accompanying the reduction in diet. The 

 men were more irritable, more easily annoyed by each other and by 

 outside associates.-^ As they expressed it, they were more ''crabbed." 

 They recognized this in themselves, and others recognized it. Those 

 who had not known them before the beginning of the experiment and 

 who formed opinions concerning them during that period were sur- 

 prised to discover the difference after the men had begun eating 

 uncontrolled. The men joked about their own irritability only because 

 they recognized it and believed it to be a temporary condition from 

 which they would rally when the food reduction was passed. It seems 

 altogether probable that this irritability may have been due, at least 

 in part, to other things besides the mere reduction in amount of food. 

 However, the indications are that it was most prominent in those 

 times when the body-weight was being actively reduced by an unusually 

 low caloric intake, as in October and early November and also follow- 

 ing the Christmas vacation in early January. In December and late 

 January the men commented upon themselves in a much more pleasant 

 way. When they were present at the Laboratory, they laughed and 

 talked much more freely and seemed generally much less irritable, if 

 not, indeed, entirely normal. The crabbedness, so-called, developed 

 prominently in some of the members of Squad B during their 3 weeks' 

 greatly restricted diet from January 8 to 28. Space will not permit 

 giving their comments. 



EFFECT ON MENTAL ATTITUDE. 



No reader will doubt the fact that members of Squad A, during the 

 experiment, sometimes found it more difficult to concentrate their 

 attention upon their studies and to sit quietly at work. Who has not 

 at times noted in himself greater difficulty in continuing at such work 

 when the meal time was near at hand or when he was about to start 

 on a journey? It must be apparent to anyone that there were many 

 details about the experiment which called for the cooperation of the 

 subjects, and so, for their attention. It was an added burden and 

 interest which their fellows did not have to carry; it entailed many 

 individual appointments and group meetings, as well as the regular 

 trips to Boston, which occupied Saturday and a portion of Sunday. 



'Langfeld reported depression and irritability in the case of L, who fasted 31 days at the 

 Nutrition Laboratory (See Benedict, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 203, 1915, p. 191). The 

 experimental program no doubt became more monotonous in the fasting than in this low-diet 

 investigation. 



