642 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVI. No. 1200 



stitutes of the United States. A special new 

 chapter is devoted to some of this modern 

 technique that has furnished such helpful 

 measurements of the basal metabolism of man 

 and the domestic animals. 



The novelties must be sought on every page; 

 for the new edition is not an expedient of 

 bookmaking but a record of progress. Among 

 the major accessions are elaborate discussions 

 of the possible processes of intermediary meta- 

 bolism. To those who learned their physiology 

 with a former generation the newer chemical 

 language may seem almost incomprehensible. 

 But Lusk properly remarks (p. 175) : " One 

 must know the life history of sixteen amino- 

 acids in order to be familiar with the meta- 

 bolism of protein. Though the extension of 

 knowledge may have been at the cost of 

 simplicity, yet order is being wrought out of 

 apparent complexity. It is often difficult for 

 an older generation to think in terms of the 

 knowledge of a new. The author's father was 

 a student at Heidelberg at the time when the 

 modem chemical formulae were introduced, 

 when H — O became H^O, and he recalled the 

 distracted exclamation of one of the univer- 

 sity professors, ' Ach Gott! wie kann man so 

 lernen ! ' " 



A new chapter on The ISTutritive Value of 

 Various Materials used as Foods develops the 

 history of the latest standpoints which are 

 threatening to upset so many of the currently 

 taught doctrines. " It is evident from the 

 material presented in this chapter," Lusk 

 writes (p. 378), " that the science of nutrition 

 includes something more than the production 

 of energy from fat, carbohydrate and protein. 

 There must be certain salts and certain quali- 

 ties of protein in the diet, and there must be 

 minute amounts of ' vitamins.' The chemical 

 composition of the latter will some day be 

 known, even as the chemical composition of 

 epinephrin is known. Epinephrin, an essen- 

 tial of life, is present in the blood to the ex- 

 tent of 1 part in 100,000,000. In like manner, 

 vitamins which are present in meat, milk, 

 fresh green vegetables and grains are essential 

 to the harmonious correlation of the nutritive 

 functions of animals. 



ISTephritis, cardiac disease and other condi- 

 tions involving acidosis are also considered in 

 their relation to metabolism. A highly inter- 

 esting and exceptionally timely chapter on 

 Food Economics concludes the volumes. A 

 few brief excerpts vtdll suffice to indicate some 

 of the attitudes of the author. After urging 

 the sale of food by calories and not by pounds 

 Lusk adds (p. 569) : " The main objection that 

 has been encountered to the sale of food on 

 the caloric basis has been the sensitiveness of 

 the business world to the introduction of a 

 new and unknown quantity. Why not leave 

 well enough alone? A more highly educated 

 generation will, however, demand that its ex- 

 penditure of thousands of millions of dollars 

 for food shall not continue to take place in 

 unfathomable depths of darkness." Again (p. 

 571) : " The housewife should know about 

 cooking, and both she and her husband should 

 know something of the value of food. The 

 sum wasted for alcoholic beverages would fre- 

 quently be sufficient to turn the scale in favor 

 of the proper nutrition of the family. Cheaper 

 milk for the babies of the poor and adequate 

 nourishment for school children are important 

 factors in the situation. . '. . As this book goes 

 to press it seems that America herself is cer- 

 tain to face a food shortage before very long. 

 This can be remedied by increasing the num- 

 ber of milch cows and by reducing the live- 

 stock raised for meat. The latter would free 

 arable land for the production of grain and 

 potatoes and save, for human consumption, 

 grain fed to steers. It is quite certain that 

 meat in the quantity it is consumed to-day is 

 entirely unnecessary, and it is susceptible of 

 scientific proof that mechanical work is more 

 efficiently and economically derived from car- 

 bohydrate food than from meat." 



When the author expresses his conviction 

 that " in another decade the development of 

 scientific knowledge will probably permit the 

 formulation of the subject from the stand- 

 point of physical chemistry " the reviewer is 

 less sanguine regarding the complete domi- 

 nance of a single mode of attacking the prob- 

 lems of nutrition. Against the author's pub- 

 lished statement that he has no intention of 



