SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— B. 343 



the determination of the structure of, and the artificial synthesis of vitamins. 

 As a result the clinician can now prescribe an exact number of International 

 Units of a synthetic vitamin ; and Nutrition is becoming an exact science 

 instead of a matter of opinion. But the study of nutrition involves also 

 the use of biological, and physical, and other methods, and this justifies 

 and indeed necessitates the existence of a new scientific expert — the 

 nutritionist. Nutrition in its applications is also bound up with agriculture 

 and economics. The nutritional condition of the people as a whole is 

 better than it was, but there is ample room for further improvement. 

 A difficulty in assessing malnutrition in the past has been the lack of standards 

 of reference, but newer chemical and clinical methods for determining 

 partial deficiencies are now offering themselves. Evidence of malnutrition, 

 presumptive or direct, is obtained along several different lines — viz. 

 (1) economic (i.e. insufficiency of money spent on food), (2) dietetic 

 (inadequacy of food eaten), (3) medical (existence of disorders of deficiency), 

 (4) sociological (comparison of the health standards of poorly-fed and 

 better-fed social groups), and (5) experimental (improvement in health 

 observed in controlled tests when the inadequate food is suitably augmented). 



Dr. T. Moran. — The biology of food preservation (11. 15). 



Food storage is the link between the farmer and consumer ; it dates from 

 earliest times, but modern civilisation, with industry and farming each 

 concentrated and often separated by oceans, has greatly increased its 

 importance. 



The aim of food storage science is not simply to maintain the condition 

 of the foodstuff as it exists on the farm, but instead to modify and control 

 changes so as to yield, after a predetermined interval, pleasant and desirable 

 foods. 



The demand for standard products which are also best suited for storage 

 has exercised, and continues to exercise, a profound influence upon the 

 theory and practice of farming which is, in fact, being industrialised. 



Foods consist of living materials, such as fruits, vegetables and cereals ; 

 and dead but still complex and organised structures such as meat and fish. 

 The properties and behaviour of these foodstuffs during storage are dis- 

 cussed to illustrate on the one hand the breadth of the scientific background, 

 and on the other types of practical applications which have emerged from 

 the laboratory. 



Food science can be regarded as a distinct branch of teaching and research, 

 coming between agriculture on the one hand and medicine on the other. 



Mr. T. M. Herbert. — Transport of food (11.45). 



A brief historical survey shows that whilst there have in past ages been 

 examples of dependence on food imports, problems of food transport 

 hardly achieved serious importance until the industrial era. Since this date 

 Great Britain has occupied a unique position in the world trade in food- 

 stuffs, and the magnitude of the problems involved in supplying her require- 

 ments is indicated statistically. The development of the world trade in 

 wheat, and the much more difficult problem of ensuring this country's 

 meat requirements between 1870 and 1900 is outlined. 



The present-day problems relate mainly to the conveyance of perishable 

 foods requiring controlled conditions of transport. Maintenance of suit- 

 ably low temperatures, or provision of adequate ventilation, are the primary 

 requirements that the chemical engineer has to solve, and the refrigeration 



