IN RELATION TO THE WAR. 495 



the proteins of corn as compared with wheat (not as compared 

 with milk proteins which are certainly more efficient in nutrition). 

 That potato protein is similarly efficient has been shown by Hindhede 

 ;md by Rose and Cooper. Thus the findings of research in the 

 chemistry of nutrition indicate that the nutritive value of the diet 

 will be fully maintained when corn or potato is substituted for wheat. 

 Even if such substituion results in a small diminution of the amount 

 of protein consumed, there will still be an ample margin above the 

 most liberal estimate of actual nutritive requirements. 



Granted that corn products can be substituted for the corre- 

 sponding products of wheat to any desired extent without diminu- 

 tion of food value as determined by carefully controlled experiments 

 of a month's duration, the question may still arise whether the 

 results would be equally favorable in case the substitution of corn 

 for wheat were continued much longer and in the case of growing 

 as well as full-grown persons. This question cannot well be an- 

 swered directly by experiments upon human beings — if for no other 

 reason than that a research cannot be prolonged indefinitely and 

 still be completed in time to be of use in connection with the present 

 emergency work of food conservation. But an adequate answer 

 appears to be furnished by the investigations of McCollum in which 

 laboratory animals (chiefly rats) have been kept on experimental 

 diets of wheat or corn with the necessary supplements often for 

 their lifetime and in many cases for more than one generation. 

 Such experiments should bring to light any differences which might 

 be conceived to exist in the most elusive factors of food value or 

 in the general wholesomeness of the two grains. In recent sum- 

 maries of the results of such research, McCollum has repeatedly 

 stated that wheat and maize are essentially alike in their dietary 

 properties. If this seems surprising in view of the well-known in- 

 adequacy of zein when fed as the sole protein of the diet, it should 

 be recalled that Osborne and Mendel, to whom the knowledge and 

 explanation of this deficiency of zein is so largely due, have also 

 shown that the other chief protein of corn, maize glutelin, is ade- 

 quate to meet all protein requirements and to maintain a normal 

 rate of growth in the young. They have also shown beautifully that 

 zein, while inadequate alone, may yet take the major part in meet- 



