268 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



them a fair health, on much less than three thousand calories 

 a day. To be sure, most of them did no heavy work, and 

 many of them no work at all. There was little work to do, 

 except for the Germans, and they would not do that. For 

 the few actual heavy workers, the men in the coal mines, a 

 supplement to the regular ration was given. 



This ration also had a very low protein content as com- 

 pared with the usually recommended one. It was only rarely 

 that the protein food ran to as much as 50 grams : it was usually 

 nearer 35 grams. The textbook rations usually call for at least 

 100 grams. 



The lesson of the great nutrition experiment in Belgium is 

 that a considerably lower ration than the one ordinarily recom- 

 mended by physiologists can keep a people alive and most of 

 them in fair health for a considerable period of time. Two 

 elements in the experiment were unusual, namely, the number 

 of subjects and the duration of it. . On the other hand, the re- 

 sults of the experiment can be expressed only in large and 

 general terms. 



By the time America came into the war the demands of the 

 Allies and European neutrals for importations of food had 

 become so enormous, and the submarine warfare had so re- 

 stricted the shipping available and made it necessary to limit its 

 use to the shortest sea lanes, thus cutting out possibilities of 

 bringing food from such distant sources as Australia, and 

 concentrating the demand on North and South America, that 

 the war food problem was more serious than ever. The al- 

 ready difficult transportation situation was made worse by 

 America's need for tonnage for the sending overseas of her 

 great army and its equipment in munitions, clothing and food. 

 It therefore became evident that the use of food by the Euro- 

 pean Allies and neutrals would have to be repressed to the 

 lowest safe amount. What was this amount for each country ? 



This was a problem for the English, French, and Italian 

 governmental food controllers and for the American food ad- 

 ministrator to decide. Theoretically a great pooling of Ameri- 



