FOREWORD 



There has never been a period in American history when 

 diffusion of knowledge of the laws of nature was a more im- 

 mediate and a more imperative duty than at the present 

 time. Hundreds of thousands of young men and young 

 women are ready to offer their services and, if need be, 

 their lives for their country and for the great principles of 

 loyalty, truth, justice, humanity and liberty for which our 

 President has enlisted us in this world war. But let not a 

 single life be lost needlessly. Let no constitution be broken 

 by disease through ignorance. The patriotic opportunity of 

 all men of science is to spread the truth, and to spread it as 

 quickly as possible. Let us speak plainly of all the dangers 

 and enemies which surround the soldier and the sailor, of 

 those that kill the soul as well as those which destroy the 

 body. The loss to the world of the finest strains of manhood 

 is the most awful curse of the many curses attending this 

 war. Every young man, if single, must think of his future 

 wife, of his future home, of his future children and so live 

 that, if his life is spared, he may some day give to his coun- 

 try one of the greatest gifts it is in a man's and woman's 

 power to give — healthy and patriotic offspring. It is a 

 scientific, no less than a religious principle, that to serve 

 one's country one must be sound in body, sound in mind, 

 and sound in spirit. 



In opening a food and health exposition, the American 

 Museum is in cooperation with the Council of National 

 Defence and especially with its Medical Board, also with 

 the National Food Commission under Herbert C. Hoover. 



Henry Fairfield Osborn, 



President. 



