Fisher — The Effect of Diet on Endurance. 3 



gastric juice is lessened. 'The point of involuntary swallowing is 

 thus a variable point, gradually coming later and later as the practice 

 of thorough mastication proceeds, until the result is reached that the 

 food remains in the mouth without effort and becomes practically taste- 

 less. Thus the food, so to speak, swallows itself, and the person eats 

 without thought either of swallowing or of not swallowing it ; swal- 

 lowing is put into the same category of physiological functions as 

 breathing, which ordinarily is involuntary. 



2. Eolloioing instinct. Never to eat when not hungry, even if a 

 meal (or more than one, for that matter) is skipped. And when a 

 meal is taken, not to be guided by the quantity of food offered, or 

 by past habit, or by any theories as to the amount of food needed. 

 The natural taste or appetite is alone consulted, and the subject 

 selects, from the food available, only those kinds and amounts which 

 are actually craved by the appetite. After practice, the appetite 

 gradually becomes more definite and discriminating in its indica- 

 tions. 



These two rules — thorough mastication and implicit obedience 

 to appetite — were alone employed during the ten weeks which con- 

 stituted the first half of the experiment. 



Shortly after the beginning of the second half of the experiment, 

 there was an interim of six days at Easter recess, during which the 

 few men who remained in New Haven took advantage of the tempo- 

 rary absence of the cook to try the possibilities of living without one 

 entirely. During this brief period use was made not only of raw foods, 

 such as fruits, nuts and milk, but also of foods which could be pur- 

 chased already cooked, such as the flaked breakfast foods. But all 

 the food was cold, and several of the men found it cheerless and 

 xinsatisfactory. Judging from their feelings, they Avere losing in 

 weight and vigor. This part of the experiment was too brief, how- 

 ever, to justify any reliable conclusion as to the virtues of a raw, or 

 rather a cookless, diet. 



The second half of the experiment lasted about nine weeks. The 

 same two rules which were employed during the first half were 

 continued during the second, but a third rule was added. This was 

 the use of suggestion, as follows : 



3. When instinct is in doubt, use reason. — This rule consists of 

 acquiring and applying a little knowledge of foods and food elements. 

 For this purpose, in the present experiment two lists of food were 

 given. One was arranged in a tentative order of intrinsic merit, 

 beginning with, fruits and ending with alcohol, and the other in 



