80 



quiet and orderly chronic patients, wliile others were practically idiots. 

 Very few of them did any work. The group included in study No. 367 

 was made up of adult chronic patients, all nonworkers. The food con- 

 sumption in one study was but 72 grams of protein and 2,558 calories 

 of energy per man per day, while in the other it was 95 grams of pro- 

 tein and 2,811 calories of energy, the average for the two being lower 

 than that of the ten studies in the first group in the table. 



The last group in the table comprises the four studies with employees, 

 including officers, clerks, ward and dining-room attendants, waiters, 

 and house girls. The average amount of muscular work which they 

 performed might perhaps be equivalent to that of persons with "light 

 to moderate muscular work," possibly greater. The conditions in the 

 different studies with respect to the amount of muscular work did not 

 vary so much, however, as to account for the wide differences in food 

 consumption observed, the quantity of protein as calculated per man 

 per da}^ varying from 10(J grams in one studv to 140 in another, and the 

 energy from 3, 135 to 4,598 calories. The average for the four studies — 

 i. e., 123 grams of protein and 3,968 calories of energy — was the same as 

 regards protein and higher as regards energy than the standard given 

 above for men at " moderatel}^ active muscular" work. The indica- 

 tions are that these employees were very generously nourished. In 

 the New York hospitals the average food consumption in six studies 

 with employees, including botli men and women, was 95 grams of pro- 

 tein and 3,183 calories of energy per man per day. 



Considering the total number of studies with patients (No. 374 being 

 taken as two studies rather than as one), the average food consumption 

 was 90 grams of protein and 2,704 calories of energy per man per day. 

 In a few of the studies the consumption was appreciably higher or 

 lower than this average, but in the majorit}^ of cases the variations 

 were not unusual, so that the average ma}^ be taken as a fair repre- 

 sentation of the food consumption of the patients studied. Inasmuch 

 as the amount of muscular activity of a large majority of the patients 

 was ver}" small, a diet furnishing such quantities of protein and energy 

 would seem to be larger than actually necessary to satisfy their bodily 

 needs. The standard given above for men in ordinary circumstances 

 " with little exercise," 90 grams of protein and 2,450 calories of energy 

 is supposed to be decidedly generous, yet as regards energy it is notice- 

 ably lower than this average consumption. The 26 studies with male 

 patients of various classes in the different New York hospitals averaged 

 90 grams of protein and 2,698 calories of energy, but this included 10 

 studies with patients classed as workers, in which the average con- 

 sumption was greatest, whereas in the studies at the Government 

 hospital only a very small proportion of the patients were workers. 

 As already stated, there were no indications that the subjects of the 

 studies in the New York hospitals were not adequate!}'- nourished. , 



