These dietary studies were all made after the plan introduced by Voit in Germany. Atwater made numerous studies of American dietaries, including the homes of laborers, professional men, students and others. Much interest was manifested by the public in these results and others took up similar investigations so that we have available the diets of people in all parts of the country and in all walks of life during the period from 1890 to 1900. The diets of Alabama negroes, Mexican laborers in New Mexico, students in boarding clubs, families of faculty members in several universities, Maine lumbermen, foreign families of various nationality as well as workingmen's and professional men's households were subjected to scientific scrutiny. The quality of any dietary was evaluated by comparison with the standards adopted by Atwater and Voit for energy and protein. This great body of studies were for the most part published in bulletins of the United States Department of Agriculture. Their collection represents an epoch in the development of knowledge of human nutrition.