REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT, 1918. 11 



cessful application; and finally, that the cost of this work to the 

 Institution includes the amount of the annual budget of the 

 Laboratory supplemented by about 20 per cent of this amount to 

 pay for overtime service and for subsistence and transportation 

 required in the procurement of materials and in the operation of 

 distant factories. 



The other illustrative example of the war activities of the Insti- 

 tution is furnished by the Nutrition Laboratory. About seven 

 Investigations of Y^ars ago this organization undertook, as part of 

 Nutrition Labo- fts general program, a series of special experiments 



ratory concern- ^ /.//.,.• i ^ • t 



ing Effects of ou the effects of fasting and the intermediate 

 a ons. gradations of undernutrition. The extremes of 

 fasting were studied very thoroughly in the remarkable case of 

 Levanzin, who submitted himself to a continuous fast of 31 days 

 while under constant and critical observation in the Laboratory 

 by its staff and by several speciahsts of the medical profes- 

 sion.* In the meantime, while many collateral researches bear- 

 ing directly or indirectly on the effects in question have been 

 made by the Laboratory, it remained to conduct a prolonged 

 series of experiments on groups of men subjected to systematic 

 and continuous observation while pursuing their daily vocations 

 and while subsisting on a common and definitely restricted diet. 

 It is easy to see that the results of such an investigation may 

 throw much Hght on the problems arising from the existing and 

 prospective world shortage in food supplies. To what extent the 

 efficiency of men may be impaired when obUged to work strenu- 

 ously while subsisting on short rations, how long they maj^ hold 

 out under such conditions, what Hmits may be safety approached, 

 and what are the danger signals or the physiological criteria to be 

 observed, are questions of immediate practical importance in 

 almost every country as well as of great theoretical interest in the 

 narrower circles of research establishments. 



In his endeavor to secure quantitative data which may afford 

 answers to these and other questions, the Director of the Labo- 

 ratory was fortunate in enlisting the cooperation of the officials 



*A detailed account of this investigation is given in Publication 203 of this Institution. 



