152 
PSYCHOLOGY : W. R. MILES 
but all the men continued the usual college activities with no obvious re- 
duction in stamina. 
Two of the men had chronic bad noses. One was operated upon during the 
test and the other should have been. Aside from these two, the prevalence 
of colds during the period was about the same as with the other college stu- 
dents. During the study three men underwent ether narcosis for operations 
(on nose, foot, and hemorrhoids) and made rapid recoveries. One man at the 
lowest period of weight contracted what was diagnosed by three physicians 
as typhoid fever, although the final course of the disease seemed to leave the 
diagnosis somewhat in doubt. He ran a very high fever, and was critically 
ill for some time, but has made a complete convalescence and recovery and 
has returned to college. 
The most noticeable discomfort experienced by the subjects was a feeling 
of cold, which it is only fair to say might be due in large part to the severity 
of the past winter. In general, notwithstanding the very great reduction in 
the metabolism (which we believe was due to the removal from the body of 
the stimulus to cellular activity of approximately 150 grams of 'surplus nitro- 
gen'), the whole period of lowered food intake had no untoward effect upon 
the physical or mental activities of these men, and they were able to continue 
successfully their college duties. 
The control squad, having demonstrated the absence of a seasonal variation 
in metabolism for about three months, were put for a period of three weeks 
upon a restricted ration of less than one-half their previous calorie con- 
sumption. In all details the picture exhibited by the first squad was 
strikingly duplicated by the second squad, although, as the loss in weight 
was obviously not so great (6% as compared with 12%) the phenomena 
were quantitatively somewhat less emphasized. 
The entire research will be published in conjunction with our co-workers, 
Drs. Walter R. Miles, and H. Monmouth Smith, in a monograph of the 
Carnegie Institution of Washington in the near future. 
EFFECTS OF A PROLONGED REDUCTION IN DIET ON 25 MEN 
II. BEARING ON N EURO-MUSCULAR PROCESSES AND MENTAL 
CONDITION 
By Walter R. Miles 
Nutrition Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Boston 
Communicated by F. G. Benedict. Read before the Academy, April 22, 1918 
It is obvious that any adequate investigation of prolonged reduction in 
diet must include observations of the neuro-muscular processes and general 
mental condition of the individuals studied. In the low-diet research the 
psychological measurements were made at the Nutrition Laboratory on Sat- 
