12 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
and the need of investigation to learn the facts, and of efforts 
to diffuse knowledge of the principles of food economy, are 
still further emphasized by the work of the past year. 
The Station has also co-operated with the United States 
Department of Agriculture in dietary studies during the year. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH THE BOMB CALORIMETER AND DEVELOP- 
MENT OF THE RESPIRATION CALORIMETER. 
The bomb calorimeter, of which an account was given in the 
last Annual Report, has been used for determinations of fuel 
values of a large number of specimens of foods and feeding 
stuffs. Some of these were made for Stations and other insti- 
tutions not provided with this apparatus. 
The researches with the respiration calorimeter are of a very 
abstruse character and unite several lines of inquiry, each of 
which must be prosecuted with the greatest patience. The 
results thus far obtained, however, are most encouraging. 
The work is being done in co-operation with the United States 
Department of Agriculture. The primary purpose is purely 
scientific, namely, to study the application of the laws of the 
conservation of matter and energy in the living organism. 
Beyond this is the more practical object of learning more of 
the laws of nutrition and the ways the food is used in the body. 
To obtain this most useful knowledge abstract research of the 
highest order is necessary. 
GOVERNMENT CO-OPERATION IN FOOD INVESTIGATIONS. 
The Experiment Stations of the country have hitherto stud- 
ied the plant and the animal and their food and nutrition, but 
have given little or no attention to the food and nutrition of 
man, notwithstanding the paramount importance of the sub- 
ject and the fact that it represents the chief purpose of agri- 
cultural production. ‘This neglect is not the fault of the 
Stations, because the Act of Congress providing for their 
establishment and their support did not definitely authorize 
such inquiries. Indeed, the work the Storrs Station has pre- 
viously done in this direction, has been accomplished with aid 
from the United States Department of Labor and from private 
sources. In 1894 the legislation with reference to the Stations 
was so changed by Congress as to call upon them to study the 
