Fisher — The Effect of Diet on Endurance. 43 



needs, as the theoiy of Chittenden would explain them ? Or, are they 

 largely'' due to the ingestion of these poisons with flesh foods, as the 

 vegetarians and Dr, Haig have maintained ? Or, do both explana- 

 tions have a share '? 



The results of the experiment demonstrated so great an increase 

 of endurance as to seem at first incredible. It certainly was a sur- 

 prise, both to the men and to me. But statistics which I have been 

 collecting during the last two years have prepared me to find great 

 differences and changes in endurance. The special result of the 

 present experiment is to show that diet is an important factor in 

 producing such alterations. The fact that endurance, even among 

 persons free from disease, is one of the most variable of human fac- 

 ulties — far more variable than strength, for instance — is evident to 

 any one who has made even a superficial examination. Some persons 

 are tired by climbing a flight of stairs, whereas the Swiss guides, 

 throughout the summer season, day after day spend the entire time 

 in climbing the Matterhorn and other peaks ; some persons are 

 "winded" by running a block for a street car, whereas a Chinese 

 coolie will run for hours on end ; in mental work, some persons are 

 iinable to apply themselves more than an hour at a time, whereas 

 others, like Humboldt, can work almost continuously through eight- 

 een hours of the day. Among statistics gathered independently of 

 the present experiment, I have found measurable differences between 

 persons far greater than the change of endurance of the eight students 

 which we have seen.' Amon^r some 50 tests of different persons 

 holding their arms horizontally, many were found whose arms actually 

 dropped against their will inside of ten minutes, whereas several Avere 

 able to hold them up over an hour, and one man held them 3 hours 

 i and 20 minutes, or a round 200 minutes, and then dropped them 

 voluntarily. Similarly with deep knee-bending, some persons were 

 found physically unable to rise again from the stooping posture after 

 accomplishing less than 500 bendings, whereas several succeeded in 

 stooping 1,000 times, and in one case, 2,400, Again, in leg-raising, 

 the legs positively refused to rise to the vertical in some cases before 

 40 times were reached, whereas in two cases this motion was per- 

 formed 1,000 times or over. On the new ergograph previously 

 referred to, among the 16 j^reliminary tests there was a range in 

 endurance between different persons from 18 to 145 and in the same 

 person at different times from 29 to 110. 



• For an account of some of these statistics see " The influence of flesh-eating on 

 endurance." Yale Medical Journal, March, 1907. 



