56 MILK SURVEY OF THE CITY OF ROCHESTER 



from a condition of well being and abundant food supply, passes towards 

 famine conditions, the milk supply fails; the supply of green vegetables 

 soon fails because the population is restricted more and more to those 

 things that can be preserved over long periods. In cities, the diet of milk 

 and vegetables runs down more or less rapidly and later there is an actual 

 shortage of food. At a certain point in the lowered vitality of the com- 

 munity, people do not die of starvation, but an epidemic of one form or 

 another arises and takes off hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands, 

 according to the extent of the famine. 



"Q. In the experimental work you are doing in Baltimore at the 

 present time you are using rats? 



A. We use rats almost altogether ; we use more or less guinea pigs, 

 and we have had farm pigs and cats, and recently prairie dogs for special 

 experiment. 



Q. About how many of these animals are you feeding at the present 

 time? 



A. We have about 1,500 at the present time. 



Q. Do you mean to say that if these animals are fed from their in- 

 fancy on such things as beef steak, potatoes and bread that they will not 

 grow? 



A. They will grow for a time but they will never reach the full 

 adult size; will always be somewhat stunted, and their inferiority we 

 judge by their low reproductive capacity, in the high infant mortality 

 and in the short span of life or early appearance of signs of old age. 



Q. When you say that if you add green leaves to their diet it seems 

 to improve their condition, what kind of green leaves do you mean? 



A. We have experimented with such leaves, especially with such 

 leaves as are of interest from the standpoint of human nutrition. The 

 list of leaves that we work with includes spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, 

 brussels sprouts, turnip tops, beet tops, etc. We also work very consid- 

 erably with alfalfa leaves and clover leaves. 



Q. If they could eat a sufficient quantity of green leaves do you 

 think that would put them in proper condition? 



A. Yes, they would succeed in nutrition as does the cow, the horse. 

 "the sheep or goat; but the digestive tract of the rat is not sufficiently 

 capacious to enable him to eat of this bulky type of food. Green leaves 

 in sufficient amount would entirely correct the faults which will Other- 

 wise exist in this type of diet. 



Q. Is the human digestive tract so arranged that they can eat a 

 sufficient quantity of green leaves to keep them in good condition? 



A. Yes, up to the standard which we observe in certain Orientals 

 and tropical people ; they fall short in general in the span of life, and in 



