MENTAL ATTITUDE AND SCHOLASTIC WORK. 681 



There were new apparatus and scientific methods for them to become 

 acquainted with and interested in. These things could not otherwise 

 than distract their attention somewhat from regular duties. Hence, 

 when a man reports that he has not accomplished much studying 

 during the previous days or has not had much desire to study, those 

 who are acquainted with college life will recognize at once that this is 

 not a condition peculiar to a restricted diet. Considering the experi- 

 ment as a whole, the men did much more than they could originally 

 have expected to be called on to do, but even so, there was very little 

 complaining, and it was always easy to cheer them up and enlist their 

 support. They proceeded with their college work as usual, regarded 

 the whole thing somewhat as a joke, and made fun of themselves and 

 of others in conniection with the matter of eating. Not one of the men 

 would be willing to have the experience omitted from his life.^ 



Aside from some feelings of weakness and discomfiture especially 

 prominent at times of active weight reduction, and some scattering of 

 attention incident to the experiment, the reduced diet as such seems 

 to have had no detrimental influence on the ability for mental work. 

 Several subjects were convinced that their minds were clearer during 

 the diet period and that they were relieved from the annoying tendency 

 to sleep after meals, which tendency returned and was prominent with 

 the excessive eating following the experiment. Some variety of work 

 was found particularly desirable. If at those times, when thoughts of 

 food were especially persistent, and hunger prominent, the subject had 

 some light physical activity to which he could turn, the time until the 

 next meal seemed greatly shortened. 



EFFECT ON SCHOLASTIC STANDING. 



. To verify the personal impressions regarding the scholastic work of 

 the men who served as subjects in the experiment, we have the more 

 or less objective data of the term grades in the several college courses 

 which were taken. The experiment lasted from October 4 to February 

 3. The college year is divided into three terms — fall term, from Sep- 

 tember 19 to December 21 ; winter term, from January 3 to March 22; 

 and spring term, from April 2 to June 1. The fall term and the first 

 part of the winter term were thus included in the diet period. In table 

 200 the average term grades for the fall and winter in all the courses 

 taken are compared for each subject with the average of all the grades 

 which the subject had received in all the courses taken previous to 



^Many things concerning the light side of the experiment and the attitude of the men to it 

 could be mentioned. On the floor of the library at the Nutrition Laboratory, one Monday 

 morning, one of us picked up a slip of paper bearing the following couplet: "Die, die. Diet 

 Squad; Shy, shy, shy a 'pod,' " by which it is meant to be indicated that the girth has been 

 remarkably reduced. Squad A, when the experiment was nearing the close placed a calendar 

 over their table in the dining hall, which bore in large letters the words: "Ten days, and we 

 eat." Each day, to the accompaniment of applause and congratulations, the number of days 

 was decreased one. 



