FOODS HUMAN NUTRITION. 255 



the cost of foodstuffs, ure as follows: "Increased supply of gold; tariff upou 

 foodstuffs and other products; price control by exchanges and agreements; 

 abuse of cold storage to help corner markets; decreased amount of labor on 

 farms and consequent increase in wages; decrease of truck farms and farming 

 around the city; excessive profits by middlemen, due to too many small shops, 

 and too much handling between producer and consumer; too much purchase on 

 credit at advanced prices; inadequate transportation to proximate farming 

 districts, especially in winter; bad roads and inadequate repair of same; short 

 weights and inadequate control of scales, measures, and weights; abuse of 

 patent laws; architects making no provision in modem houses for storage of 

 goods; growing luxuriousness of the people, which eliminates careful and 

 businesslike housekeeping and shopping; telephones, resulting in ordering on 

 credit without bargaining for price; and inadequacy of facilities, too high 

 charges, and improper conditions of our city markets." 



Legislative and other remedies are suggested, including measures designed 

 especially to remedy local conditions. Among others may be mentioned the 

 suggestion " that schools for teaching farming in a businesslike way be estab- 

 lished in connection with our public school system ; . . . that our markets be 

 so reconstructed as to be sanitary throughout and kept so at all times, amply 

 supplied with running water, comfort stations, and cold storage plant; and so 

 arranged that farmers, butchers, fish dealers, provision dealers, etc., have 

 separate sections, and that the stalls be leased under annual contract at a 

 nominal charge sufficient only to cover cost of maintenance of cold storage plant 

 and employees necessaiy to manage the market ; . . . and that a Farm Products 

 Company be formed by capitalists and interested householders on the coop- 

 erative plan, which shall buy up or lease land for truck gardening contiguous 

 to the city, and manage it in a businesslike way from a central office employing 

 the most approved business methods of management and most approved scien- 

 tific methods of farming, fertilizing, etc." 



Low cost recipes, compiled by Edith G. Harbison (Philadelphia, 1914, pp- 

 208). — A large number of recipes are given. 



Education in food values (Chambers's Jour. [London and Edlnb.], 7. ser., 

 pt. .'lO (1914), pp. 268, 269). — A discussion of the nutrition investigations of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, and their results. 



The hygiene of the preparation, storage, and distribution of food, J. 

 Gates (Jour. Roy. Snnit. Inst., 35 (1914), No. 6, pp. 237-247).— A digest of 

 data. The paper is followed by a discussion. 



The cause and prevention of pellagra, J. Goldbergeb (Pub. Health Rpts. 

 [U. S.], 29 (1914), No. 37, pp. 2354-2357).— In an investigation of pellagra in a 

 number of institutions it was noted that in the diet of those developing pellagra 

 there was " a disproportionately small amount of meat or other animal protein 

 food, and consequently the vegetable food component, in which corn and sirup 

 were prominent and legumes relatively inconspicuous elements, forms a dispro- 

 portionately large part of the ration." 



The inference is drawn that pellagra is not an infection but a disease essen- 

 tially of dietarj' origin and is probably caused either by the absence from the 

 diet of some essential substance, or vitamins, or possibly by the presence of 

 some excessive amounts of a poison in the vegetable part of the diet. 



The treatment of pellagra, W. F. Lorenz (Pub. Health Rpts. [U. S.], 29 

 (1914), No. 37, pp. 2557-25^0).— Improvement was noted in the majority of 27 

 acute cases of the disease, in which practically the only treatment given was 

 rest in bed and a generous diet consisting chiefly of fresh meat, eggs, wheat 

 bread, fresh vegetables, and milk. 

 79934°— No. 3—15 5 



