388 



occurred in the first few months and thus accounts for the large food con- 

 sumption at that time. 



TABLE V. FOOD CONSUMPTION OF SOLDIERS IN DIFFERENT MONTHS OF THE YEAR 



1 October 10 to 31. 



'June 1 to 17. 



* This period at camp, June 22 to July 11. 



'July 12 to Aug. 12. 



During 191-7 and 1918, a series of nutritional surveys were made 

 in the training camps of the United States Army. (See Table IV.) 

 Although they were not made upon the same men throughout the year, the 

 observations were so numerous and each made with so large a number of 

 men, pirobably over 200, as to furnish useful averages for the present pur- 

 pose. When the energy content, in calories, of the food consumed per 

 man per day is calculated for the different months of the year, as in Table 

 V, certain seasonal changes become evident. Beginning in October, 1917, 

 the figures showed a gradual increase in food consumption until it reached 

 3894 calories in March, falling to 3545 in April. This level was con- 

 tinued in May, June and July. In August, there was a slight rise but 

 in September there was a return to the summer level, after which there 

 was a rise to December, 1918, at which time the observations ended. 

 The peak of the previous years was passed in November and the 

 food consumption in October, November and December was, respectively, 

 121, 212 and 326 calories greater than in the corresponding months of 

 the previous year. Attempts to correlate the curve of food consumption 

 with variations in local temperature, wind velocity, humidity, etc., were 

 not successful. It would seem more likely that the higher consumption of 

 food in the winter was due to the greater muscular activity of the men. 

 There is, moreover, another factor of possibly even greater importance. 

 Practically all the men in training gained weight. If this gain did not 

 occur in summer or was then much smaller than in winter, this differ- 

 ence alone would account for the differences in food consumption. The 

 effect of the armistice in modifying the attitude of the men in regard to 

 the conservation of food may help to account for the larger food consump- 

 tion during the last two months. 



According to Eijkman(&) (1897), the basal metabolism of Europeans 

 in Java was not lower than in Europe and Dutch physicians there ate 



