826 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
I quote from Williams’ most excellent treatise on Human Obstetrics: 
‘ ‘ Prochownick pointed out, and his experience has been confirmed by 
Reeb and Noel Paton, that a diet poor in carbohydrates and fluids exerts 
considerable influence in lessening the weight of the child without other- 
wise affecting it, and in not a few cases these precautionary measures 
may obviate a difficult delivery, or even do away with the necessity for 
the induction of premature labor. These conclusions stand in marked 
contrast to those usually held by the laity, who erroneously believe that 
abstention from proteid food is the essential point.” 
According to this Williams agrees with Prochownick indirectly in 
saying that the protein food allowed is not an essential factor in deter- 
mining the size of offspring. Our results, as you will see later, show 
quite clearly that protein is a most essential factor in promoting a larger 
growth of the fetus. 
In 1910-11 we fed a number of gilts (gilts are really young, immature, 
ungrown, prospective swine mothers) upon different food stuffs, the re- 
sults upon five lots of which we append the data. 
effect on offspring of feed fed pregnant swine. 
Gilts— Five in a Lot, 1910-1911. 
Pregnancy Ration 
of Gilts 
Av. daily gain 
lbs. 
Feed Daily 
Av No. Pigs 
in litter 
Av. wt. new 
born pigs 
Lbs. 
Vigor 
Shelled 
corn 
Lbs. 
Supple- 
ment 
Lbs. 
Strong 
Medium 
Weak 
Dead 
Corn only 
.354 
3.65 
None 
7.6 
1.74 
68 
16 
16 
0 
Com 4- Meat Meal (Light) 
.582 
3.21 
.127 
7.4 
2.01 
92 
5 
3 
0 
Corn + Meat Meal (Heavy 
.635 
2.75 
.432 
8.8 
2.23 
93 
5 
2 
0 
Corn + Clover 
.528 
3.67 
.302 
6.4 
2.21 
94 
0 
6 
0 
Corn + Alfalfa 
.627 
3.74 
1.106 
7.6 
2.29 
89 
8 
0 
3 
Offspring Record 
The basal ration was corn alone. Corn we know is quite deficient in 
protein (the zein which comprises practically 58% of said 1 protein is 
peculiarly lacking in two quite important amino acids, namely, trypto- 
phane and lysine) and calcium. It is somewhat surprising to know that 
calcium comprises practically two-thirds as much of the body substance 
as does nitrogen, the basal element of protein. Corn has other probable 
drawbacks such as an overabundance of magnesium, small percentage of 
general ash, acid character of the ash and so forth, but we must not linger 
upon this highly interesting theme. 
Three different supplements were used as indicated,, one being meat 
meal, which is really a packing house by-product composed entirely of 
