Horace Fletcher experimented on himself to restore his health. He practised deliberation in eating, thoroughly insalivated the food taken, which he claimed produced satiety sooner on the ingestion of a small amount of food, with the result of restoration to health. On this diet Mr. Fletcher could do the work of a trained athlete. With the Fletcher case and others like it before us, Chittenden asks the question, Do we not need more exact knowledge of true dietary standards? Chittenden's experiments were conducted as follows:

First

A group of five men of various ages, connected with the university as professors and instructors, men who while leading active lives were not engaged in very active muscular work. They were selected as representatives of the mental worker rather than the physical worker, although several of them in the performance of their daily duties had to be on their feet in the laboratory a good portion of the day.

Second

A detail of thirteen men, volunteers from the Hospital Corps of the United States Army and representatives of the moderate worker, men who for a period of six months took each week-day a vigorous amount of systematic exercise in the gymnasium, in addition to the routine work connected with their daily life as members of the United States Hospital Corps. These men were of different nationalities, ages, and temperaments.

Third

A group of eight young men, students in the university, all thoroughly trained athletes, and some of them with exceptional records in athletic events.

From group one we will take only Prof. Chittenden's case and the results therefrom. His experiments with himself began in November, 1902. He weighed sixty-five kilos, was nearly forty-seven years old, and accustomed to eating daily an amount of food equal to the so-called dietary standards. As he says, recognizing that the habits of a lifetime should not be too suddenly changed, a gradual reduction was made in the amount of proteid or albuminous food taken daily. For a month or two he took no breakfast, except a small cup of coffee. Light lunch at 1.30 p.m. and a heavier dinner at 6.30 p.m. Occasionally, however, the heartier meal was taken at noon, as the appetite suggested. The total intake of food was gradually diminished, as well as the proteid constituents. There was no change, though, to a vegetable diet, but a simple introduction of physiological economy. Still, there was and is now a distinct tendency toward the exclusion of meat in some measure, the appetite not calling for this form of food in the same degree as formerly. At first this change to a smaller amount of food daily was attended with some discomfort, but this soon passed away, and his interest in the subject was augmented by the discovery that he was unquestionably in improved physical condition. A rheumatic trouble in the knee-joint which had persisted for eighteen months entirely disappeared and has not returned. Sick headaches and bilious attacks, to which he had been subject, no longer appeared periodically, as before. There was greater appreciation of such food as was eaten; a keener appetite and more acute taste seemed to be developed, with a more thorough liking for simple foods. By June, 1903, the body weight had fallen to fifty-eight kilos. Remember, it was sixty-five kilos at the beginning. Prof. Chittenden goes on to say: "During the summer the same simple diet was persisted in, - a small cup of coffee for breakfast, a fairly substantial dinner at mid-day, and a light supper at night."

Two months were spent in Maine, at an inland fishing-resort, and during a part of this time a guide was dispensed with and a boat was rowed by Prof. Chittenden six to ten miles in the forenoon, against head winds (sometimes without breakfast), and with much greater freedom from fatigue and muscular soreness than in previous years on a fuller dietary. He argues that a hearty meal before starting work in the morning is unnecessary. It is more rational to take the hearty meal after work. Energy does not come from the food soon after it is swallowed, but from the absorbed material stored up in the muscles and which was digested and absorbed a day or two before.

Here Prof. Chittenden is arguing for his no-breakfast idea, and claims that both mental and physical work is easier when following it. He further argues that upon a restricted diet, especially of proteid foods, there should be a diminished sense of fatigue in connection with vigorous or continued muscular work, and at the same time there should be an increased power of endurance, with actual increase of strength. Decrease the proteid food and we decrease the formation of the crystalline nitrogenous waste products, such as uric acid, etc, which, circulating through the system, cause fatigue. Another reason why we may cut down the meats, etc., in our diet is that it is very well accepted now that the energy of muscular contraction comes from the oxidation of the non-nitrogenous components of the tissues and not from the oxidation of the nitrogenous constituents of the muscles.

In the fall of 1903 Prof, Chittenden returned from Maine to New Haven with no change in body weight. His body had apparently adjusted itself to its new conditions.

Let us continue Prof. Chittenden's story, pretty much in his own words and made up from his own tables of daily examinations. During the nine months the body weight was practically constant. The daily volume of urine was exceptionally small, scarcely one pint. Urine was never turbid, as was often the case on unrestricted diet. This condition made much less work for the kidneys. Specific gravity of urine ruled rather high, averaging probably 1027. This was due probably to the small amount of the fluid. He does not give us the amount of fluids he was accustomed to take. The uric acid output was small. On average diet the average adult must metabolize each day 16 grams of nitrogen. Chittenden's average was, as indicated by the urine, only 5.699 grams. The last three months of the experiment it was only 5.40 grams. On the whole, the amount was quite uniform. He never weighed his food except for special tests. The greatest possible variety of foods was indulged in; the dictates of the appetite were followed and only excesses avoided. It was only temperance in diet and not prohibition.

Now as to the amount of proteid material metabolized each day. Voit's standard calls for 118 grams, of which 105 grams should be absorbable in order to maintain the body in a condition of nitrogen equilibrium and in a state of vigor and general tone. This would mean a daily excretion through the urine of at least 16 grams of nitrogen. Chittenden's daily output through the urine was, on the average, only 5.699. This means only 35.6 grams of proteid metabolized, or about one-third the amount called for by Voit's standard. Further examinations showed that during the nine months of the experiment Chittenden's body was in a state of nitrogenous equilibrium. Indeed, there was a slight plus balance. During this time Prof. Chittenden's consumption of proteid food was only about one-third the usual amount thought necessary for the average man.

The average daily fuel value of his food was only about 1549 calories, the usual average of an average man of his surroundings being 3000 calories or more. Prof. Chittenden says, of course the low fuel value of his food would not meet the requirement of a man of more active life, with greater physical labor. His life was active, but more mentally than physically, although he exercised as much as most men who do professional work and who do not engage in athletics.

To accomplish this result no special form of diet is absolutely necessary. Personal likes and dislikes must enter into the choice of any diet, and freedom of choice, freedom to follow the dictates of one's appetite, with such regulation as comes from the use of reason and intelligence, are all that is necessary to secure the desired end. Physiological economy in nutrition is easily attainable without the adoption of vegetarianism.

Temperance and simplicity in diet must be the rule. This soon becomes a habit, and the method becomes easy of execution in almost any given case. Health, strength, and mental and physical vigor will be maintained. Greater freedom from fatigue, greater aptitude for work, greater freedom from minor ailments will come to one with lowered pro-teid metabolism and general condition of physiological economy.

Prof. Chittenden says he watched his condition closely throughout the experiment for every sign and symptom that might be unfavorable, and ended it with the full assurance that much good is to be gained by the adoption of dietetic habits that accord more closely with the true physiological needs of the body. He feels no desire to return to the more liberal dietetic habits of former years.