NUTRITION LABORATORY.* 



Francis G. Benedict, Director. 



Since the character of the special service in which the Nutrition 

 Laboratory was engaged during the war required no fundamental 

 alteration in the organization of the Laboratory, the signing of the 

 armistice in November 1918 produced no change in the researches 

 then in progress or in the other phases of laboratory activity. The 

 Nutrition Laboratory is thus in a nearly normal condition, with its 

 organization intact, although numerous changes among the younger 

 members of the stafi' have taken place. 



Special stress has been laid upon the technical details of the publi- 

 cation of two large reports, one giving the results of the study on the 

 undernutrition of man, and the other a biometric analysis of human 

 metabolism. The most extensive research carried out by the Labora- 

 tory since the last annual report — that on the undernutrition of beef 

 animals — was a natural outcome of the study made in the winter of 

 1917-18 on the undernutrition of man. It was originally planned, 

 at least in part, to supply information as to possible methods of con- 

 servation in time of national need. In view of the abstract scientific 

 value of such a study, the research was continued after the signing of 

 the armistice, even though the practical need for such data was ap- 

 parently no longer imminent. 



ADDITIONS TO EQUIPMENT. 



Pursuit pendulum. — From the psychological data collected on avia- 

 tion candidates at the Nutrition Laboratory in the spring of 1917, 

 it was learned that certain tests of muscle coordination offered promise 

 in the selection of aviators. The accuracy of ocular pursuit movements 

 in following a swinging pendulum correlated fairly well with the sub- 

 sequent progress of the men in learning to fly, but the photographic 

 technique for recording such ocular pursuit movements appeared to 

 certain individuals acting in an advisory capacity to the Government 

 as too complex for adoption at the aviation fields. To meet this 

 objection, Dr. W. R. Miles designed a simplified apparatus with which 

 the eye-hand pursuit coordination can be accurately tested. In this 

 apparatus a pendulum carrying a reservoir is arranged to swing over a 

 sink or table, a small stream of water flowing from the reservoir as the 

 pendulum swings. The individual under test attempts to collect the 

 water in a cup of limited diameter. A separate cup is used for each 

 double swing of the pendulum and the volume of liquid in each cup is 

 measured. The test will be of general usefulness. 



*Situated in Boston, Massachusetts. 



265 



