448 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



Stations, and the results of fourteen further experiments covering- 

 forty-one days await publication. 



DIETARY STUDIES. 



Although the Storrs Experiment Station has for a considerable 

 number of vears studied the food consumption of families, boarding 

 houses, cluos, institutions, and the like, the number of dietary studies 

 which has been made in cooperation with the Department has not been 

 large. In 1897 a stud}' was made of the food consumption of the Yale 

 University boat crew while in training at New Haven, and later 

 immediately before the race with Harvard University on the Thames 

 near New London. The results of these studies will be referred to in 

 connection with those of similar studies made at the same time with 

 the Harvard University boat crews, and referred to in the section 

 " Nutrition investigations in Massachusetts " (p. 453). 



An inquiry was also made concerning the food consumption, diges- 

 tion, and nitrogen metabolism of bicyclists under conditions of unusual 

 and severe mental and muscular strain. The four studies which were 

 carried on were with three different men. The food eaten was care- 

 fully weighed, sampled, and analyzed, and samples were taken of the 

 excretory products. The men were engaged in a six-day bicycle race 

 and were at work from twelve to twenty-three hours each da}'. The 

 results, therefore, are of considerable interest in showing the food 

 demands of persons under suclr extraordinary conditions. As was to 

 be expected, the quantity of food consumed was large, but not nearly 

 as large as would be necessary in order to cover the demands of the 

 body under the circumstances. Unfortunately, no estimate could be 

 made of the amount of body fat lost. Prof. R. C. Carpenter, of Cor- 

 nell University, made estimates of the amount of work done by the 

 riders, which showed that their efficiency must have been far greater 

 than that of any heat engine that has yet been devised. 



DIGESTION EXPERIMENTS. 



In connection with the metabolism experiments with the respira- 

 tion calorimeter above mentioned, digestion experiments have been 

 carried on for the purpose of studying the digestibility of the food 

 used in the metabolism experiments and throwing light upon the 

 digestibility of different rations under different conditions. The 

 detailed results of much of this work have not yet been published, 

 but the work has served an important purpose as a means of verify- 

 ing proposed factors for the digestibilit}' of different classes of food 

 materials, and also the factors proposed for heats of combustion and 

 for fuel value. 



