130 



SCIENCE 



[N. 8. Vol. L. No. 1284 



immaturity, ripeness or fermentation. It may 

 require a certain degree of desiccation. 



Many other details must be attended to by 

 each specialist involved in the investigation, 

 and we probably have yet to see a single 

 disease problem which has been completely 

 rounded out and solved for future generations. 



IX. HOW SHALL WE RECORD OUR OBSERVATIONS? 



Undoubtedly the most satisfactory method 

 of making a large series of records is to use 

 some type of loose-leaf card or sheet filing 

 system. By such means one can always keep 

 in an orderly arrangement all the facts so far 

 obtained. In the case of investigations of the 

 causation of a given disease, one of the most 

 satisfactory methods which has been used for 

 recording observations is to prepare a little 

 blank booklet, which will fit the filing system, 

 in large quantities, each book to represent a 

 case. This book should contain pages for 

 each phase of the question, with blanks cover- 

 ing all kinds of minutes about this phase. The 

 whole series of observations can be tabulated 

 for each point. 



"Wi DwiGHT Pierce 



Washington, D. C. 



THE U. S. FOOD ADMINISTRATION'S 

 WAR FLOUR 



The U. S. Food Administrator, Mr. Herbert 

 Clark Hoover, met and solved one of the 

 greatest problems of the war. Prompt and 

 seemingly drastic action was necessary in 

 order to conserve wheat and vanquish the 

 specter famine. The way in which this was 

 achieved is so well known that recounting is 

 unnecessary. 



Bread is a nation's chief food, and in order 

 to maintain an adequate supply during the 

 war there were but two courses open for the 

 Food Administrator to follow: To require the 

 use either of substitutes, or of whole wheat 

 flour, also known as long extraction flour. As 

 head of the commission for relief in Belgium, 

 Mr. Hoover was familiar with the results aris- 

 ing from the exclusive use of whole wheat 

 flour in rationing a nation, and they were such 

 as not to warrant a repetition of the experi- 



ment in the United States. It is most for- 

 tunate that no impractical dreamer, bent upon 

 repeating an experiment that had failed was 

 in charge of the U. S. Food Administration. 

 Mr. Hoover's plans for the conservation of 

 food and wheat in particular, rested upon 

 basic scientific principles. 



At the time Mr. Hoover assumed control 

 there was a shortage of wheat and a fair sup- 

 ply of other cereals, particularly com and bar- 

 ley. It was a question as to the best use of 

 these cereals for human and animal foods. 

 Corn and barley alone were not suitable for 

 bread making, as they lack the gluten or bind- 

 ing material of wheat. Gluten is contained 

 only in the floury part of the wheat and there 

 is none in the wheat bran except that present 

 in any flour that may have failed to be sep- 

 arated from the bran. As wheat bran and 

 other wheat by-products contain no gluten 

 binder they are on a par with corn and barley 

 so far as physical bread-making value is con- 

 cerned. The Food Administration took a 

 broad view of the question and recognized 

 that in addition to bread there must be main- 

 tained an adequate supply of milk and animal 

 fats as pork. 



Naturally the question hinged upon the 

 relative merits of bran and corn and barley 

 flours as human and animal foods. All avail- 

 able data plainly indicated that a pound of 

 corn or barley flour furnishes the human body 

 with more digestible protein and available 

 energy than a pound of wheat by-product. 

 In the animal ration, however, the wheat by- 

 product has a higher productive value than 

 the corn or barley. 



Some recent experiments of the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture, conducted during 

 the war by Arthur D. Holmes, specialist in 

 charge of Digestion Experiments, OiSce of 

 Home Economics, have an important bearing 

 upon this subject. He reports that in eight 

 digestion trials with men fed on fine bran 

 bread in a simple mixed diet, an average of 

 44.7 per cent, of the bran protein was digested 

 and 56.6 per cent, of the bran energy was 

 available. In the case of unground bran 28 

 per cent, of the protein was digested and 55.5 



