CHEMISTRY AND FOOD 261 



milk could be doubled by decreasing the meat supply 

 only one third. Two thirds of our present meat supply 

 would give us a larger per-capita meat consumption 

 than any European country, even Great Britain, has 

 ever enjoyed in modern times in all probability quite 

 as much as is good for us; while to double the milk 

 supply of the United States would undoubtedly mean a 

 tremendous gain in the well-being of the people. 



Even if our present milk supply be regarded as ade- 

 quate, we now have evidence that a more liberal supply 

 would be better. 



ADEQUATE VERSUS OPTIMUM FOOD SUPPLY. The 

 space assigned for this paper being nearly exhausted, 

 let us conclude it with a brief account of a current in- 

 vestigation demonstrating the fact that through our 

 present knowledge of food chemistry, a food supply al- 

 ready adequate may still be capable of improvement 

 with corresponding gain in health and vigour. 



In developing and applying the newer knowledge of 

 food chemistry in our work at Columbia University, we 

 have not been satisfied to stop with adequacy of nutri- 

 tion. We have sought to find and to show how a food 

 supply which is already adequate may be made still 

 better so that it will support a higher degree of health. 



The Century Dictionary defines health as: "Sound- 

 ness of body; that condition of a living organism and 

 of its various parts and functions which conduces to 

 efficient and prolonged life. . . . Health implies 

 also, physiologically, the ability to produce offspring 

 fitted to live long and perform efficiently the ordinary 

 functions of their species." 



