350 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1163 



Bread. 



Oleomargarin. 



Tea for adults. 



MUk for youngest child. 



Dried apple pie with cheese for adults. 



Dried apple sauee for others. 



THE APPROXIMATE COST PEE DAT AND THE NUTRITIVI 

 VAIiUES IN CALORIES APPEAE BELOW 



Coffee 



Tea 



Milk 



Bread 



Cereal 



Oleomargarin 



Corn-syrup 



Sugar , 



Bice or macaroni 



Dry navy beans 



Fat pork 



Dry fruit (prunes) 



Flour, lard, etc., for pie 

 or other extras 



Calories Cost In 



2J ounces 



J ounce 



3 quarts 



2 pounds 



i pound 



1 " 



10 ounces 



6i " 



1 pound 



1,800 

 2,500 



800 

 2,500 



650 



450 

 1,600 

 1,000 

 1,000 



325 



1,800 



14,425 116 



As cheaper meats, pork sausages, braised chuck 

 rib of beef, salt cod or herring may be added if 

 finances allow. 



This is one method of giving scientific 

 advice. I helieve that it may be also pos- 

 sible to arrange in convenient locations 

 throughout a town grocery stores with 

 milk stations adjoining, and that here 

 baskets may be exchanged daily, an empty 

 one for a full one, the baskets varying some- 

 what from day to day but containing 5,000. 

 10,000 or 15,000 calories of basic food fuels. 



We are told that Joseph fed the Egyp- 

 tians with grain stored during seven years 

 of plenty. Whether the municipality of the 

 future will purchase wheat and ration 

 bread in quantities sufficient for its inhab- 

 itants is a serious question. The railroads 

 of the country receive three thousand mil- 

 lion dollars for the service which they 

 render. They must pay high wages and 

 must not increase their charges for what 

 they have to sell. The food problem in- 

 volves a national expenditure of at least 



six thousand million dollars a year. The 

 food problem is a national problem which 

 more directly affects living expenses of 

 the very poor than any other problem. The 

 railroads do not enhance the cost of food 

 more than four per cent, of its total cost. 

 The cost of food is, as has been shown, not 

 always dependent upon the cost of pro- 

 duction. The cost of gas is regulated by 

 the state and yet the gas companies pay 

 dividends. The cost of bread may some 

 day be lowered by reducing the number of 

 middlemen and by some sort of state con- 

 trol. It is important, also, to find some 

 means to increase the supply of milk. This 

 might be encouraged by a tax on steers of 

 ten dollars each, payable every six months, 

 a procedure which would enhance the price 

 of beef but would induce the farmers to 

 feed their fodder to milch cows or to pigs. 



This has brought me to the point where I 

 started — that the professor may get lost in 

 his own back yard. However, it does seem 

 to me that this is a proper time for an 

 American commission to consider these sub- 

 jects and to report to our government what 

 elemental advice the commission might 

 agree to give. Surely, some consensus of 

 opinion might be arrived at by a commis- 

 sion meeting in Chicago and composed of 

 Mendel, Taylor, McCollum, Folin, Levene, 

 Sherman, Armsby, Langworthy and Bene- 

 dict. This would mean the submergence of 

 the individual for the instant, in an attempt 

 at welfare work for the nation at large. It 

 would be an experiment worth trying. 

 Graham Lusk 



New York City 



GRAVITY AND ISOSTASY 



There has recently been issued from the 

 government printing office a Yolume of 196 

 quarto pages, known as Special Publication 

 'No. 40 of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, 

 bearing the title, " Investigations of Gravity 

 and Isostasy," written by Mr. William Bowie. 



