January 17, 19 18] 



NATURE 



3^7 



diets are under investigation; (b) that in families 

 composed of persons of different sexes and ages 

 the individual distribution of food among the 

 members of the families can be expressed by the 

 age and sex coefficients proposed by Atwater; 

 (c) that published coefficients of wastage and pro- 

 portional absorption are trustworthy. In addition 

 to these special difficulties there are, of course, 

 the usual pitfalls of statistics (errors of sam- 

 pling, randomness or otherwise of sampling, etc.). 



From the evidence furnished by a short series 

 of control experiments carried out by the Belgian 

 inquirers, Slosse and Waxweiler, it seems likely 

 that the American coefficient of reduction for sex, 

 i.e. putting the consumption of an adult woman 

 as 80 per cent, of that of an adult man, is not far 

 from the truth ; but, on the other hand, the 

 American coefficients of consumption by children 

 may be appreciably too small. The result is that, 

 so far as reduction to "man values " is concerned, 

 the English munition workers' mean is accurate, 

 while the means of the other collections of data 

 (which are reduced from family budgets compris- 

 ing the nourishment of children as well as that of 

 adults) may over-estimate the per caput "man" 

 consumption, perhaps even as much as 20 per cent. 

 Regarding the discount to be allowed for waste In 

 preparation and non-assimilation, much depends 

 upon the constituents of the diet, and the figure 

 of 12 per cent, cannot be regarded as more than 

 a very rough approximation. 



Notwithstanding these limitations, the value of 

 the data is considerable, and a study of them might 

 induce some popular journalists and amateur food 

 economists to moderate their strictures upon the 

 extravagance of the English working classes 

 which is alleged to have been fostered by the war- 

 time rise in wages. The data do not suggest that 

 the energy value of the diet consumed by so 

 important a group of operatives as the munition 

 workers is substantially greater than that received 

 by persons of the same social and industrial class 

 before the outbreak of hostilities. The distribution 

 of energy between the three classes of foodstuffs 

 has been different, an inevitable result of the potato 

 famine and the appeals to eat less bread which 

 characterised the period (spring and summer of 

 191 7) during which the data were collected. 



The general conclusion to be drawn from the 

 statistics and the relatively few experiments avail- 

 able is that 3500-3800 Calories in food as pur- 

 chased are by no means an over-estimate of the 

 nutritive requirements of an adult man engaged in 

 moderately strenuous work. Recent work, indeed, 

 confirms the view that Atwater 's standard, so far 

 as energy value is involved (3500 Calories), is not 

 an extravagant one. 



The British Medical Journal in' its issue of 

 December i directed attention to the fact that the 

 Food Controller's voluntary ration for men on 

 medium work provided about 2100 Calories, leav- 

 ing a deficit of 1400 Calories from the total of 3500, 

 which the evidence just set out shows to be a 

 minimum requirement of workers in this class. 

 Our contemporary concluded that a weekly con- 

 NO. 2516, VOL. 100] 



: sumption of 9^ oz. of fish and a daily consumption 

 of one pint of milk were as much as could be 

 j hoped for from these so far unrationed articles, 

 which leaves (cheese being notoriously scarce) a 

 I balance of nearly 950 Calories to be obtained from 

 ! potatoes, involving a daily consumption of more 

 ! than two pounds. These facts show the urgent 

 ; necessity of carefully organising the distribution 

 i of potatoes within the country and the obligation 

 imposed upon persons living near the centres of 

 I supply (for instance, in suburbs with available 

 allotments) to make free use of potatoes, thus 

 helping to increase the quantities of cereals avail- 

 able in the industrial districts to which bulky vege- 

 tables are not easily transported. The gravity 

 of the situation imposes a further duty upon the 

 I readers of a scientific journal, who must inculcate 

 upon their friends the elementary principles of 

 bioenergetics. That the relation between mus- 

 ! cular work and food is as close as that between 

 , the mileage of an automobile and its consumption 

 I of petrol is a truth still hidden from nine out of 

 j ten educated persons ; ignorance of the facts has 

 I been the parent of many untrue charges. 

 I M. G. 



SCIENTIFIC WORK OF THE MEDICAL 

 RESEARCH COMMITTEE. 

 HTHE third annual report of the Medical Re- 

 -»- search Committee, which has recently been 

 published (Cd. 8825: H.M. Stationery Office, 

 price 6d. net.), testifies to a very large amount of 

 work of a varied nature. A notable proportion of 

 this has necessarily been devoted to problems 

 atising, directly or indirectly, from the war. But 

 the introductory remarks rightly point out that it 

 is meaningless to try to separate the practical 

 from the scientific aspects of any set of investiga- 

 tions. There are many problems, moreover, which 

 the state of war brings into urgency for solution 

 and, at the same time, offers unique opportunities 

 for inquiry. 



Limits of space forbid the reference in detail to 

 all the questions dealt with in this very interesting 

 and important report, and a mere list would be of 

 little value or interest in itself. The report should 

 be read carefully by all who have at heart the 

 health and efficiency, not only of our sailors and 

 soldiers, but also of the nation as a whole. It is 

 proposed here rather to direct attention to a few- 

 results of general scientific importance. 



It cannot escape notice how prominent have 

 become the methods and results of the physiologi- 

 cal laboratory. Two cases may be mentioned in 

 ! illustration : the regulation of industrial work in 

 relation to fatigue, and the supply of oxygen to 

 men flying at high altitudes. In other instances 

 our ignorance of fundamental physiological pro- 

 cesses has been vividly brought home to us. One 

 of these may be referred to in the next place. 



Many diseases are caused, as is well known, by 

 the invasion and presence in the blood of minute 

 I organisms of animal or plant nature, protozoa or 

 I bacteria. This is now, indeed, a matter of com- 

 mon knowledge. For a long time efforts have been 



