146 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
principle is thoroughly rational. People like definite state- 
ments, and feeding standards and tables of composition of 
feeding stuffs proved very attractive. What is. more to the 
point, scientific experiments and practical experience showed 
the correctness of the theory and the practical utility of its 
application. In some instances the doctrine seemed almost in 
danger of degenerating into a fad, and I felt. constrained to 
make a protest in the following language: 
‘“The modern doctrine of food and nutrition as applied to the nourishment 
of domestic animals and man is in danger of being misapplied. Indeed, it is 
being misapplied to an extent already serious. * * * The evils are practi- 
cally three; the failure to recognize what feeding and dietary standards are and 
ought to be, the setting up of incorrect standards, and the blind and thought- 
less use of such standards in the calculating of rations and dietaries.”’ 
Strangely and yet perhaps not unnaturally, the practical de- 
velopment of the science of human nutrition has been of later 
and slower growth than that of the nutrition of animals. It is 
only within a few years past that dietary standards have been 
discussed very widely in English. But of late they are being 
studied by experimenters, taught in schools and discussed in 
books, magazines and newspapers until many people have be- 
come familiar with them. As is the case with the feeding 
standards, the principle is rational, the theory stands the test - 
of scientific criticism and practical experience, the utility is 
perfectly clear, the idea is attractive to many people and it too 
is in some quarters becoming somewhat of a fad. 
Having been one of the first to advocate the general idea in 
this country, I venture once more to enter a protest against 
the too mechanical use of the numerical expressions which are 
intended merely as illustrations of a physiological principle. 
Tables of composition of food materials and dietary standards 
are rational and useful; and daily menus showing proportions 
of different food materials which would supply a family of a 
given number of persons with nutrients and energy fitted to 
those standards are eniinently proper and serviceable as general 
indications of what may be a well adjusted diet. -But the house- 
wife who attempts to bring the daily meals of herself and family 
into exact mathematical accord with any given standard will 
not be making the best use of what the science of nutrition 
offers. 





