

418 ISIDOR GHEESTWALD 



plied less of the protein to those families whose children wore below normal 

 weight than it did to the other families, but these foods supplied more of the 

 calories, indicating that the former group used less milk but more butter 

 than the latter. The two Tennessee groups show no such difference in the 

 consumption of milk and butter but, apparently, the families with children 

 below weight used more peas and beans and less cornmeal than did the fam- 

 ilies whose children were of normal weight. But these differences are 

 slight.' The striking difference, in both pairs, is that in energy content, 8 

 per cent in Tennessee and 14 per cent in New York. Food habits that do 

 wt secure to the ordinary family at least 3000 calories per man per day are, 

 apparently, not suited to secure the proper development of the children. 



Of course, if no work is done, much less food is needed. This is in- 

 dicated by many of the observations cited in Table IV and also by those 

 of Benoit on a group of 78 Russian officers, prisoners in Germany, dur- 

 ing a period of 480 days. Their food contained an average of 48.7 grams 

 protein, 14.6 grams fat and 332 grams carbohydrate, furnishing 1697 cal- 

 ories per man per day. During this period, they lost an average of 140 

 grams. Although they had previously lost weight, they were still of about 

 the ''normal" weight, as judged from the American statistics, the average 

 weight being 130 pounds (63 kilos) with an average height of 65 inches 

 (1.65 meters). But they did no work and took very little exercise of any 

 description. Bread and flour furnished 49 per cent of the protein, milk 

 and its derivatives 23 per cent, meat and fish 16.3 per cent and vegetables 

 11.65 per cent. This was a very satisfactory distribution and no disturb- 

 ances of nutrition were observed. 



With the foods ordinarily consumed, the amount needed to maintain 

 the body in its accustomed condition distends the stomach to a certain de- 

 gree. If, with a change of diet, this bulk is lacking, the individual may be 

 hungry, even though the energy content of the food is quite sufficient. On 

 the other hand, in times of scarcity, the most varied, though indigestible 

 and worthless materials are used simply to fill the stomach. Such is the 

 case in Russia and in China to-day. 



Bread and flour supply half the food of Europe. They are, ordinarily, 

 the cheapest foods and in a time of high prices, their comparative im- 

 portance increases and an adequate supply of bread becomes even more 

 essential. Thus Miss Ferguson found that the same families in Glasgow 

 used less meat, potatoes and sugar in 1917 than in 1916 but that they all 

 used more bread and flour. It is not without reason that "bread" is so 

 often used as synonymous with "food." A bread-eating people must have 

 bread or suffer. For this reason, the most diligent attempts were made 

 during the war to find suitable diluents or substitutes to use with wheat 

 or rye flour in bread making. 



A very complete study of the effect of a large number of such sub- 

 stances as were used in Russia in times of scarcity was made by Popoff. 



