436 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



Council most conspicuous. During the war, the Council was 

 able to bring about a large number of cooperative research 

 undertakings, but these were mainly represented by the appoint- 

 ment of committees, each of whose members was a specialist 

 in the same scientific field, and they worked together by dividing 

 the problem and allocating its several phases to one or another 

 of their members. This is a highly profitable form of pro- 

 cedure where time is of crucial importance, as in war, but it is 

 less likely to commend itself to scientists in time of peace. 

 Meantime, there are abundant problems, and among them many 

 of fundamental national importance, which can only be solved 

 cooperatively and by the joint action of specialists representing 

 quite diverse scientific interests. 



The Division of Biology and Agriculture has created a com- 

 mittee for the study of the problems of food and nutrition. 

 The general field of work has been subdivided into that of 

 human nutrition and of animal nutrition. A group of some 

 fifteen eminent scientists have come together and made a pre- 

 paratory survey of the general problem. These scientists 

 represent chemistry, physiology, zoology, physiological and 

 biological chemistry, vital statistics, agriculture, animal hus- 

 bandry, and household economics. If, as their work develops, 

 need arises, they will take in representatives of other branches 

 of science. The war made it quite plain that there is a prob- 

 lem of national nutrition quite distinct from that of merely 

 individual nutrition, and to this the committee will also give 

 attention. It will at best be several years before the full fruits 

 of this work will begin to come in, but the coercive and essenti- 

 ally practical character of the problem is evident the moment 

 one faces the facts, and particularly in our own country, where 

 the preparation of large parts of the food material of the people 

 is in the hands of a few great industries. The old-fashioned 

 community lived mainly upon its own immediate neighborhood. 

 The modern community puts under contribution for its food 

 the remotest corners of the earth. The committee has already 

 made an excellent beginning in its work, the cost of which will 



