12 GRAHAM LUSK 



it will cause suffocation; and the breath of many people crowded in a 

 close and small place impregnates the air with a suffocating quality. On 

 the other hand, it absorbs from the air a thin vapor, of which the use 

 is not sufficiently known." 



And Benjamin Franklin in "Poor Richard," 1746, thus poetically 

 popularizes the ideas of his time: 



"Like cats in air pumps to subsist we strive, 

 On joys too thin to keep the soul alive." 



The dawn of the modern era has been reached, but there is little 

 to indicate the impending clarification of thought. Before considering 

 the events which led to the Chemical Revolution one must stop to learn 

 of a case of self-inflicted human scurvy. 



William Stark, M.D. (1740-1770). The work of Stark was edited 

 after his death by J. C. Smyth. 



In the editor's preface one reads, "His experiments on diet are 

 the first and will probably long remain the only experiments of the 

 kind." 



It is stated that he began his experiments on diet in 1769, greatly 

 encouraged by Dr. Franklin, "from whom he received many hints." 



Stark thus describes himself: "The person upon whom these ex- 

 periments are tried is a healthy man about twenty-nine years of age, six 

 feet high, stoutly made but not corpulent, of a florid complexion, with 

 red hair." 



He reached the following general conclusions: "A very spare and 

 simple diet has commonly been recommended as most conducive to health, 

 but it would be more beneficial to mankind if we could shew them that a 

 pleasant and varied diet was equally consistent with health as the very 

 strict regimen of Cornaro or the Miller of Essex. These and other ab- 

 stemious people, who having experienced the great extremities of bad 

 health, were driven to temperance as their last resource, may run out in 

 praises of a simple diet, but the probability is that nothing but the dread 

 of former sufferings could have given them resolution to persevere in so 

 strict a course of abstinence." 



He gives the following reasons for undertaking the investigation: 

 "Dr. B. Franklin of Philadelphia informed me that he himself when a 

 journeyman printer lived a fortnight on bread and water at the rate of 

 ten pounds of bread per week and found himself stout and hearty on 

 this diet." . . . 



"I learned from Dr. Mackenzie that many of the poor people near 

 Inverness never took any kind of animal food, not even eggs, cheese, 

 butter or milk." 



Mr. Hfewson told him that a ship's crew, having consumed the pro- 

 visions, lived one part on tobacco, the other part on sugar. The latter 



