12 PHYSIOLOGY AND NATIONAL NEEDS 



due to their absence, such as scurvy, rickets, and 

 probably dental caries, are therefore called " de- 

 ficiency diseases." 



What is true for rice is also true for wheat 

 grains. Our war bread was at first distasteful, and 

 part of the prejudice against it was due to errors 

 in mixing and baking, which can now be avoided. 

 Painstaking researches have shown that the war 

 bread was not only easily digestible by most people 

 (including invalids, who submitted themselves to 

 experimentation), it not only enabled an enormous 

 saving to be made in the nation's supply of flour, 

 but, above all, it is of superlative value in contain- 

 ing the health-giving vitamine.^ 



The methods of making such bread and the 

 experimental testing of their digestibility were all 

 organised by the Royal Society Committee, and it 

 was mainly the effect of this Committee's repre- 

 sentations which prevented the Government from 

 rationing bread in this country. This was, how- 

 ever, only rendered possible by America's great 

 act of self-sacrifice in depriving herself of wheat in 

 order to supply us and our allies. Here she also 

 acted under scientific advice. 



The women of America have loyally supported 

 the men, and it has been their special duty to look 

 up the old cookery books dating back to times 



^ The question of vitamines is considered in full in Professor Hopkins' 

 article, which see (p. 27). 



