
130 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
actually measured, is obvious and will be considered, but first it. 
may be well to consider briefly what is meant by a dietary 
standard and its relation to dietary studies—or in other words 
to the kind of research which in the past has been most com- 
monly followed to secure facts for calculating the standards. 
In this connection it should be remembered, however, that 
the standards which have been most generally accepted do not 
depend wholly upon dietary studies, or in other words upon: 
the amounts which persons of different age, sex and occupa- 
tion are found to eat, but upon physiological studies as well. 
DIKTARIES OF PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT CLASSES AND? OCCURA- 
TIONS IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. 
Much information regarding the kinds, amounts and nutritive 
values of the food of people of different age, sex, occupation, 
income and surroundings in different parts of the world has 
accumulated during the past twenty years. This comes from 
studies of actual dietaries in England, Germany, Italy, Russia, 
Sweden and elsewhere in Europe, and in Japan and other Ori- 
ental countries. Within the past dozen years extensive studies 
of this kind have been made in the United States. ‘The Storrs 
Experiment Station has been one of the pioneers in this kind 
of inquiry and accounts of a considerable number of its dietary 
studies have appeared in its annual report. 
The common way of making such studies is to find what 
kinds and quantities of food are used during a given period, as 
a week or a month, in the household or other: establishment 
where the study is made; to find the amounts of nutrients in 
the food, either by analysis or by use of figurés for the average 
composition of the various food materials;* noting the number 
of persons who are nourished by the food and the number of 
meals eaten by each and then calculating the amounts of nutri- 
ents per person per day. » 
There are, however, several chances for error in such a 
method. In the first place, since different specimens of the same 
kind of food vary greatly in composition, it is often inaccurate 
to estimate the nutrients of one specimen from figures repre- 
senting the average composition. Accordingly, in the more 

* Such as have been given in previous reports of this Station and in Bulletin 28 of 
the Office of Experiment Stations of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. 





