TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION I. 759 
is that when the miller removes the bran he takes out the most valuable part of 
the flour, But the analysis in the chemical laboratory is not the same as that in 
the human body. The digestive apparatus of man has not the power to utilise 
the bran, consequently, when we eat the meal from the whole wheat we digest 
the part which makes the white flour and reject most of the ingredients of the 
bran. Cattle and sheep can digest the bran; the miller is, therefore, right in 
selling the bran for fodder for stock, and the white flour bread for man. This 
last statement perhaps requires a slight qualification. A large number of experi- 
ments with healthy men show that the nitrogenous, ingredients of the bran 
escape digestion when made into bread, so that 1 lb, of white flour furnishes more 
digestible material than 1 lb. of the whole wheat meal; but it may be that the 
body obtains more phosphates from the whole wheat. This last question is still 
under investigation. The present probability, however, is that the chief value of 
the bran is as a stimulant to digestion in some cases where peristaltic action or 
the secretion of digestive juices is enfeebled. 
While Professor Atwater could hardly adopt the vegetarian theory of diet, he 
believed that the idea of the need of large amounts of meat is often greatly 
exaggerated. 
The investigations emphasise the great importance of a liberal diet for people 
engaged in muscular labour. They make it clear that in many cases the food of 
the poor is inadequate for normal nourishment, and must remain so until they 
have larger incomes or cheaper food. 
The investigations also bring out clearly the reasons why people with seden- 
tary occupations need less food than those with more physical exercise. Mental 
labour ditters from muscular labour in requiring much less material and energy 
for its support. In general, people with sedentary occupations have the larger, 
and those whose labour is manual the smaller, incomes. Thus it comes about 
that the well-to-do are apt to be overfed and the poor underfed. 
The application of these principles to some of the economic questions of the 
day was emphasised. High value was placed upon the inquiries of Mr, Rowntree 
regarding the conditions of living of the labouring classes in York. Other in- 
vestigations in England and Scotland were referred to, and the statements 
of Mr. Charles Booth, in his monumental work on ‘ Life and Labour in London,’ 
regarding the need of such an inquiry in Great Britain were quoted with 
approval. 
‘Half the struggle of life is astruggle for food’; half the wages of the bread- 
winner are spent on the food for himself and his family, Little regard is paid to 
the relation between the real nutritive value of food and its cost. The poor 
man’s money is worst spent in the market, the poor man’s food is worst cooked 
and served at home; here it is emphatically true that ‘To him that hath shall be 
given, nt from him that hath not shall be taken away, even that which 
e hath. 
The importance of proper diet as an aid to temperance reform was empha- 
sised. In countless cases in the United States—and he presumed the same was 
true in England—the home diet of the labouring classes is not what it should he, 
and the cooking and the serving of the food are the opposite of attractive. It is 
not strange that the people take to drink. One place to work against the evil of 
alcohol is at the table. 
The educational aspect of the subject was also dwelt upon, The Federal and 
State Governments which support these inquiries, and the institutions and indi- 
viduals who carry them on, lay great stress upon the distribution of the results 
among the people at large. Not only are the seule printed in scientific memoirs, 
but the practical outcome is condensed in pamphlets and leaflets which the 
Government prints literally by the million, and distributes gratuitously. Copies 
of these publications were shown. Schools, from the lower grades to the univer- 
sities, are introducing the subject into their curricula, and leading educators are 
coming to recognise that when such themes are treated in the true scientific spirit 
as revelations of natural law, and their significance and their connection with 
life and thought are explained, they are valuable both for mental discipline and 
