160 
tions which, upon being carried out, resulted 
in many advantageous changes. 
Although the principal work of these groups 
was inspection of the manner of handling and 
preparing food, the visiting officers were able 
to give considerable instruction: in the prin- 
ciples of nutrition, the proper selection of 
foods, and the construction of dietaries to mess 
officers, medical officers and others who were 
interested. Detailed personal instruction was 
given to the mess personnel on some of these 
topics, as well as on the various methods of 
avoiding waste, the importance of keeping 
kitchens and mess halls clean and orderly, 
and the methods of judging and storing food. 
Survey parties were instructed to seek in 
every possible way to reduce waste. It was 
found that men and officers were very willing 
to cooperate in making surveys and to reduce 
as much as possible the waste of food. One of 
the most effective means adopted for this pur- 
pose was introduced at one camp and followed 
later at other camps. 
At this camp seven companies were selected 
from various organizations, totaling 1,135 men. 
A two-day survey was run on each mess, and 
the average edible waste was found to be 1.12 
pounds per man per day. Instructions were 
then given to the mess sergeants and cooks in 
matters of food and mess economy, and when 
the officer in charge was satisfied that they had 
a reasonable understanding of the subject a 
second two-day survey was made. This showed 
an average edible waste of 0.48 pound per man 
per day—a saving of 0.69 pound. This saving 
‘amounted to $61.75 per day for the seven 
messes, or at the same rate would amount to 
$22,542 per year. If the same rate of saving 
were brought about for the entire camp, in 
this case approximately 15,000 men, it would 
amount to $338,000 a year. 
Work of this character showed the necessity 
of keeping a nutrition officer in each camp at 
all times so that he might advise about the 
composition and nutritive value of dietaries, 
make inspections for adulterations, spoilage, 
and deterioration, and to cooperate with the 
mess officials. 
Sixty new officers are to be commissioned in 
SCIENCE 
[N. 8. Von. XLVIII. No, 1233 
the division of food and nutrition to handle 
the additional work. All will be food special- 
ists similar to those already in the service. 
GREETINGS TO FRANCE FROM BRITISH 
SOCITIES 
Messaces to France on the occasion of 
France’s day have been dispatched by all the 
leading societies and institutions in Great 
Britain, including the following scientific so- 
cieties : 
British Association—Nineteen years ago the 
Dover meeting of the British Association was ‘‘so 
arranged that the two great nations which had 
been, a century earlier, grappling in a fierce 
struggle should in the persons of their men of 
science draw as near together as they could.’’ 
Another joint meeting with France was on the 
point of taking place when our high hopes of last- 
ing general peace were so cruelly destroyed. But 
out of the destruction has arisen a far closer union 
of our two peoples, and an even brighter prospect 
of our future cooperation for the good of human- 
ity and science. 
Royal Society.——The Royal Society of London 
sends greetings to the French nation and more 
especially to its scientific men. It recalls the in- 
timate friendship which since their foundation has 
bound together the Académie des Sciences with its 
own body. Always united in their endeavor to 
promote the advance of science, they are now 
joined in their efforts to defend the cause of 
civilization and freedom. 
British Academy.—To France, who has so often 
inspired and led civilization in Europe; to France, - 
who upholds the banner of intellectual freedom 
and unfettered thought; to France, who for nearly 
four years has endured brutal outrage and the 
violation of all decencies of humanity and civili- 
zation, the British Academy, in the name of Brit- 
ish scholarship, sends on this great anniversary a 
renewed assurance of loyal fraternity and of un- 
shaken determination to continue the conflict until 
liberty is secured and French soil delivered from 
the desecration of the invader. 
Royal College of Surgeons of England.— 
Brothers-in-Arms, we greet you. -Bound by an- 
cient ties of blood and by the memories of many 
a gallant contest in the past, to-day we stand as 
one nation united in a sacred cause. We have 
before us a happy presage from the past. As the 
united efforts of Pasteur and Lister have laid low 
the tyranny of disease, so shall France and Britain 
