DIETARY STUDIES. 1 29 



palatable forms that they are relished and eaten without exces- 

 sive waste. 



It is quite evident, however, that these conditions are more 

 difficult in the concrete than in the abstract. The lack of cul- 

 inary skill, the necessity for a desirable variety of foods, and the 

 marked differences of individual tastes are all obstacles to the 

 easy application of laboratory demonstrations to the manage- 

 ment of a dietary. 



It was felt that if these views of food economics could be made 

 useful in practice it would be well worth while to show this by 

 accurate experimental data. It was decided, therefore, that 

 nothing could be undertaken more desirable from a practical 

 standpoint than to attempt an application of the considerations 

 above mentioned. 



The work attempted was something more than an ordinary 

 dietary study where the supply of raw materials was simply such 

 as would be dictated by the season, condition of the market, etc. 

 It was rather a dietary study where the supply of raw materials 

 was deliberately controlled in such a manner as to make possible 

 a comparison of the relative cost of different sources of supply. 



Whatever opinion may be entertained as to the success and 

 value of this experiment, it certainly has the merit of being per- 

 haps the first attempt in this country to apply to the study of 

 human food economics the same deliberate control of the rations 

 that has for a long time been exercised in similar experiments 

 with farm animals. 



THE COLLEGE COMMONS AND THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH 

 THE EXPERIMENTS WERE MADE. 



The college boarding house is connected with a dormitory, 

 and is patronized chiefly by the students living in the dormitory 

 and in neighboring fraternity club houses. Certain members of 

 the college faculty and a few outside students take their dinners 

 at the boarding house regularly, and others occasionally, thus 

 making a larger number of dinners than of other meals. The 

 regular student boarders were, with a single exception, all 

 young men whose ages ranged from seventeen to twenty-three 

 years, and who weighed on an average about 150 pounds.They 

 were all compelled to take a fair amount of physical exercise, 



