606 EXPEKIMENT STATION EECORD. 



(6) legislation, inspection, suppression of fraud, statistics of food 

 adulteration; and (7) teaching of rational nutrition and hygiene — 

 methods of popular instruction in the subject, cooperative work, 

 administration of food work, food charity work, and food in relation 

 to sociological questions. 



The congress was called under the patronage of the King of Bel- 

 gium and the Belgian Government, and numbered among its officials 

 many men of prominence. Its sessions, as of other congresses at the 

 Brussels Exposition, were held in the Palais des Fetes. The attend- 

 ance Avas large, particularly the representation from various Euro- 

 pean comitries. 



The principal activities of the congress centered in the section 

 meetings and the general conferences, both of which were of great 

 interest. The plan was followed of printing and distributing the 

 papers in advance, with a view to economizing time, as an author 

 could then simply summarize his paper and present his results for 

 discussion. The plan adopted permitted the greatest possible amount 

 of discussion and interchange of information in a given time. In 

 many cases recommendations were adopted regarding future work 

 having to do with the subjects presented. 



Much interest was manifested in the energetics of nutrition, and 

 the papers in section 1. which had to do with this subject, were par- 

 ticularly numerous. The interest in questions of In^giene was shown 

 by the able papers in section 3, which included such topics as the 

 danger of exposing foods for sale without due protection from dust 

 and dirt, physical methods for preserving food, including steriliza- 

 tion and refrigeration, food poisoning of different types, chemical 

 and bacteriological requirements for potable waters, and the preven- 

 tion of tuberculous infection through milk. Other papers which had 

 to do with milk and dairy products formed a part of the list pre- 

 sented in section 4. 



The list of papers in section 7, likewise a long one, treated of such 

 subjects as the feeding of infants, the food of laboring men, diet in 

 different climates, arni}^ diet, and diet in rural regions. The educa- 

 tional side of the work Avas also stronglv emphasized in this section 

 with papers on the teaching of nutrition in schools, the methods fol- 

 lowed in Holland in popularizing work in rational nutrition and 

 hygiene, and the methods of teaching home economics followed in a 

 number of American colleges. 



In view of the interest and activity in human nutrition in this 

 country, as evidenced by the work and the teachings of the Federal 

 Department, the experiment stations, and the agricultural colleges, 

 it seemed desirable that the American work along these lines should 

 be adequately represented at the Brussels congress, and an effort was 

 accordingly made to collect papers and other illustrative material. 



