Part 5

At Yale were found not only a very well-adapted chemico-physiological laboratory with some of the most active and scientifically respected research talent of the world in charge, but the laboratory stood only three minutes away from one of the best furnished gymnasiums in the world, under a director who is an M. D. of twenty years' experience, as well as a famous athlete and author of an athletic manual. It so happened that this gymnasium was especially suited for assisting in a research into the very causes of human efficiency, or lack of it, which nutrition is supposed to affect.

Only forty minutes from New Haven by rail,--a distance not greater, as measured by time separation, than from one side of London to the other,--at Middletown, Conn., stood also the recently completed calorimeter of Professors Atwater and Benedict ready for making a calorimetric trial-balance measurement of metabolism attained and chemically estimated in the tests at New Haven.

After the Yale demonstration, of which Professor Chittenden’s article, previously mentioned, treats, the author responded to an invitation from Professor Atwater and submitted himself to a 32-hour confinement in the calorimeter for confirmation of the results obtained at New Haven.

This experience in the calorimeter at Middletown was very significant and instructive. The author was the first test-subject used in the newly completed calorimeter. The oxygen-measuring attachment of Dr. Benedict that completed the apparatus and gave a complete trial balance of the metabolism of the subject under examination was as yet untried, but it proved its integrity within the fraction of one per cent and registered as accurately as necessary for all practical purposes. So much for the machine; but it measured a result which is of the greatest importance to the human race. The author had just demonstrated the possibility of running the human machine on half the heat, on one-third of the fuel, and with only one-tenth of the waste, as represented by the waste, or ashes of digestion. Not only was this done while in pursuit of the ordinary activity of present-day life, but under stress of 'Varsity-Crew exercise, as reported by Professor Chittenden and Dr. Anderson. Had this demonstration been made relative to steam engines or electrical motors, the information would have been revolutionary in establishing new values for things industrial and commercial.

Its significance relative to human profitable possibilities is even more important than if related to steam or electrical power. The possibility of economy in the human machine gives also a hope of immunity from the common diseases which now afflict mankind.

The trial of the calorimeter as a measuring machine and the trial balance of the economic metabolism which the author had attained by five years of careful attention to the natural requirements of nutrition were epoch-making events coincidently related, and for them the author here makes this distinguished claim--not on account of any accomplishment of himself, but as a promise of great possibilities for human betterment.

Here follows a reproduction of the plan just referred to, with _fac-simile_ of the signatures of the distinguished physiologists who approved the plan and consented to serve as “Assessors.” To this list should have been added the name of Professor Ozawa, professor of physiology at the University of Tokio, Japan; but time and distance did not permit gaining the required understanding and assent. Professor Ozawa’s connection with the inquiry would make it not only international but interhemispherical and interracial as well, and this possibility of scientific coördination and coöperation is typical of the harmonising wave that is fast enveloping the earth for the benefit of mankind.

I give a copy of the document entire, with estimates of cost, etc., just as it was originally drawn and intended only as a trial suggestion, to be modified by circumstances.—HORACE FLETCHER.]

PROPOSAL TO FOUND AN INTERNATIONAL LABORATORY OF RESEARCH FOR THE STUDY OF NUTRITION IN ALL ITS ASPECTS

Notwithstanding the enormous development which the study of Experimental Physiology has undergone during the last half-century, and the constant multiplication of physiological laboratories fitted in a manner which enables them to be used as places of research as well as of instruction in the methods of physiological inquiry, it has appeared to many physiologists that a great need remains to be supplied by the establishment of an International Laboratory of Research, devoted primarily, if not exclusively, to the investigation of problems connected with the Nutrition of the Animal, and particularly of Human Organisms,--studies particularly, and in the first instance, from the point of view of the relation of the food consumed by the animal body to its output of energy, either in the form of heat or mechanical work.

The reason for establishing such a laboratory, available for the use of investigations of all nations, is to be found in the fact that the researches which are now called for, in order to place upon a firm foundation our knowledge of food and its relations to the activity of the organism, necessitates an assemblage of apparatus and machinery so specialised and so costly that they are not to be found collected together even in the best equipped of the physiological laboratories of Europe or America, which all subserve in the first instance the purposes of systematic instruction. Undoubtedly, unquestionably, certain of the great and costly appliances of research are to be found in particular laboratories, as, for instance, in those of Berlin, Munich, Paris, and Turin, but there certainly exists no laboratory in which the investigator can find assembled under one roof all the specially fitted chemical, physical, and even bacteriological appliances which he may need to employ in the investigation of the Phenomena of Nutrition.

A more precise conception of the nature of the proposed laboratory may be formed if reference is made to certain groups of appliances which such a laboratory should possess and be able to place at the disposal of the scientific men coming to it for facilities which may be denied them at home. It should possess a complete set of respiration chambers of various types, and especially should be provided with the “Atwater Respiration Apparatus;” the most perfect appliances for the analyses of gases should be available; it should be provided with the most perfect calorimeters of various types, both for the investigation of the calorimetric value of the foods experimented on, and for the determination of the heat produced by man or by the lower animals,--the subjects of observation. The laboratory should possess, besides, the most perfect appliances for the measurement of work done by man and by animals (“ergostat,” “ergograph”), and a set of balances of the highest perfection capable of weighing with accuracy very heavy loads. These characteristic appliances of a laboratory specially designed for placing our knowledge of Animal Nutrition on a thoroughly sound basis must be superadded to the ordinary means for pursuing with success researches in Pure Organic, Physiological, and Physical Chemistry, as well as in Bacteriology.

OUTLINE OF THE PROPOSED SUBJECTS OF RESEARCH TO BE UNDERTAKEN IN THE PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL LABORATORY

1. To determine with greater precision than has yet been possible the efficiency of the animal organism considered as a machine in which potential energy of the organic constituents of food is converted into mechanical work. The knowledge that we already possess has shown that in the animal we have an engine infinitely more efficient as a utiliser of the potential energy supplied to it than any appliance yet constructed, or which we can, in the present state of physical science, construct. A still more precise study of the actual efficiency of the animal as a whole, as well as of certain of the vital organs which are mainly concerned in mechanical work, and a more thorough investigation of the processes whereby--for instance, in the muscles--the potential energy of stored-up chemical compounds is, as appears certain, directly converted into mechanical work, is not only desirable in the interest of the ultimate object of the work of the Laboratory, but possesses a high degree of theoretical interest, even from the point of view of Pure Physics. To sum up: One of the first objects of the investigations to be carried out in the projected Laboratory should be “the more precise determination of the minimum transformation of energy which corresponds to mean and accurately determined conditions of the animal body, and of that of man in particular.”

2. We are acquainted with the fact that the potential energy which is utilised by the animal is supplied to it with the least wear and tear to, or strain upon, its mechanism by non-nitrogenous organic constituents of food which must belong to the groups of starches and sugars or fats, but that the continued existence of the organism demands, as an essential condition, the introduction of a certain proportion of albuminous matter. In spite of numerous very fine investigations on this subject, the yet more precise determination of the minimum quantity of the albuminous constituents which are absolutely necessary or desirable, under the most varying conditions, is eminently desirable, especially in the light of recently recorded facts, amongst which are those to be referred to under 3 (following):—

3. Certain very noteworthy observations made by Messrs. Horace Fletcher and Ernest H. Van Someren have shown that an excessively prolonged mastication and insalivation of food leads to remarkable results in respect to the diminution of the total quantity of food necessary to keep the body in a state of health, and to, as is alleged, a remarkable improvement in the digestive functions as well as of the general health of the individual. It appears highly important thoroughly to investigate the remarkable phenomena discovered by Messrs. Fletcher and Van Someren, and to determine how far they may lead to a modification of or improvement in the dietary of healthy individuals and of persons in a state of disease.

4. Indeed, it may truly be said that the average diet of man, that is to say, the absolute and relative amount of certain food-stuffs on which an average man should live, is at present, to a large extent, determined in an empirical manner. It is most necessary that this should be determined in an exact manner, since it is at least possible that a more complete knowledge may reveal that the good results thus obtained empirically are only reached by means of an excess of one element being counterbalanced by excess of another element, and thus open up a way to considerable economy. The changes needed for variations from the average, to meet certain conditions, are also at present, to a very large extent, determined empirically, and these also most certainly ought to be determined in an absolutely exact manner.

5. The researches of Pawlow on the conditions which influence the

## activity of the secreting glands of the organs of digestion, upon the

relation of their activity to the nature of the food ingested, upon the influence exerted by the secretion of the glands situated in one part of the alimentary canal, upon the activity of glands situated lower down, indicate lines of research only recently opened out, but the importance of which in reference to the problems of nutrition is probably great.

6. Similarly, the facts which have in recent times been ascertained in reference to the remarkable influence exerted by the so-called “internal secretion” of certain ductless glands on the general metabolism, the part played by the pancreas in reference to the transformations of sugar in the body indicate yet other lines of research to be carried out in connection with the main inquiry.

In conclusion: The final problem of the work of the proposed Laboratory will be to ascertain the conditions which will “render it possible to obtain from the human machine, under varying conditions, the highest efficiency at the least cost.”

The value of results which may be thus obtained, considered from the point of view of social, political, and administrative economy, is hardly to be exaggerated.

SUGGESTIONS AS TO STAFF AND PERSONNEL OF THE PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL LABORATORY

For the coördination and general direction of the several investigations, the services of an eminent physiological chemist (preferably one having the principal European languages at his command) is essential.

Such a director would need at least two efficient permanent technical assistants, as for instance, one to deal with the problems of Organic Chemistry, and another competent to deal with the problems of Physical Chemistry. Other assistants might be necessary, but it would probably be desirable that the Institute should have the power of subsidising, for a longer or shorter period, men who would undertake special investigations in coördination with the general work, and who would thus be, as it were, temporary assistants. This would be quite apart from the general hospitality of the Laboratory offered by the Institute to other investigators.

ESTIMATES FOR THE PROPOSED LABORATORY

INITIAL OUTLAY

Director $5,000 $5,000 Permanent and Temporary Assistants 7,500 to 10,000 Other General Maintenance 5,000 to 7,500 ——————— —————— — $17,500 $22,500

With regard to the second item, the permanent assistants would be required at the outset, but the temporary assistants would be taken on as opportunity offered. Less than even the lower estimate might suffice at first.

Regarding the third item, also, the maximum might not be required in the beginning.

SUGGESTIONS AS TO DESIRABILITY OF LOCATION

The place fitted for the establishment of an International Institute should be one which can be reached with comparative facility by investigators of the different nationalities. It must be one free from the objections due to national susceptibilities. It should also be, if possible, a place agreeable to live in; a place where work can be carried on through the year; and a place where expenses, both the personal expenses of the investigators, and the general expenses of the Institute, are not excessive. Venice has been suggested as a place fulfilling the above requirements. It can be reached readily from all parts of Europe, and is as accessible to Americans as any other European city. Living is very cheap, and, indeed, all expenses are very moderate.

On sea level itself, Venice is within near distance of very high altitude, and hence offers facilities for the study of the effects of climatic influence on nutrition. It is also sufficiently near the Regina Margherita Laboratory, on Monte Rosa, to enable the observations made at the two places to be coördinated. Venice is, moreover, a cosmopolitan centre; and persons of many different nations and races might readily be obtained as subjects for observation and experiment.

On the other hand, it may be regarded as essential to the complete success of the proposed Institute that both the director and those engaged in investigation should have ample opportunities of ready and frequent intercourse with eminent men engaged in investigation in Physics, Chemistry, and the allied sciences. The help which is thus gained by intercourse with men at the very head of various scientific inquiry cannot be supplied in any other way. There is also an urgent reason for ready access to a most thoroughly equipped scientific library. It is also essential that the Institute should have facility of obtaining, or of getting constructed, with the least possible delay such apparatus as it might need. These essentials cannot be supplied otherwhere than in great centres of scientific activity. A small university cannot supply them. If they are insisted on, the Institute must be located in a place which has metropolitan distinction and holds not only a large but an active university. The choice of a situation, from this point of view, in Europe, is thus almost limited to such places as Paris, Berlin, Vienna, or London. Of these London probably best recommends itself for international purposes.

But, on the other hand, London is distinctly an expensive place to live in. Indeed, all expenses there are great, and the same may be said of any great metropolitan centre. Moreover, London cannot be reached from the countries of Europe without sea transit.

The choice between such a place as London and such a place as Venice must depend upon the relative weight attached, on the one hand, to the scientific advantages dwelt on above, and, on the other hand, to the advantages other than scientific.

SUGGESTIONS AS TO MANAGEMENT OF THE PROPOSED INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE

It is proposed that: First, there should be a small body of trustees who should undertake the financial responsibility; and, Second, a board of scientific assessors, representing several nations, who, in conjunction with the director, should exercise general supervision of the work of the Institute. Such a board need meet only at rare intervals, much being done by way of correspondence. The expenses which the members incur in the exercise of their functions ought to be met out of the funds of the Institute.

The following have expressed willingness to act as scientific assessors:—

[Illustration: Signatures]

NATIONALITY AND SCIENTIFIC TITLES OF OUR BOARD OF SCIENTIFIC ASSESSORS

SIR MICHAEL FOSTER, M.D., K.C.B., F.R.S., M.P., etc. Late Professor of Physiology, University of Cambridge, England; Secretary of the Royal Society; Permanent Honorary President of the International Congress of Physiologists, etc.

DR. PROFESSOR ANGELO MOSSO. Professor of Physiology, University of Turin, Italy; Director of the Regina Margherita Biological Station on the summit of Monte Rosa, etc.

DR. PROFESSOR HUGO KRONECKER. Professor of Physiology, University of Berne, Berne, Switzerland, etc.

DR. PROFESSOR N. ZUNTZ. Professor of Physiology, Berlin, Germany, etc.

DR. PROFESSOR PAUL HEGER. Professor of Physiology, Brussels, Belgium; Director of the Solvay Sociological Institute, Brussels.

DR. PROFESSOR A. DASTRE. Professor of Physiology, Universitie de la Sorbonne, Paris, France, etc.

DR. PROFESSOR HENRY PICKERING BOWDITCH, Professor of Physiology, Harvard Medical School; Second President American Physiological Society; President of the Children’s Aid Society, Boston, Mass., etc.

PROFESSOR RUSSELL H. CHITTENDEN. Director Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University; Professor of Physiological Chemistry in Yale; Present President of the American Physiological Society, etc.

DR. PROFESSOR WILLIAM H. WELCH. Professor of Pathology in Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland; President of the Rockefeller Institute of Preventive Medicine, etc.

DR. PROFESSOR J. P. PAWLOW. Director of the Department of Experimental Physiology in the Russian Imperial Military School of Medicine, etc.

PERSISTENT SCIENTIFIC DOUBTS

[Notwithstanding the report of the Cambridge examination of the claims for an economic nutrition advanced by the authors, American physiologists were still doubtful if a nitrogenous economy like that reported could be maintained, and the writer was invited to submit to further tests at the Physiological Laboratory of Yale University, under direction of Professor Russell H. Chittenden, Director of the Sheffield Scientific School, and President of the American Physiological Society, and Dr. Lafayette B. Mendel.

The following article, first published in the _Popular Science Monthly_, June, 1903, is a report of that test, and indicates a desire to carry the investigation further to include a variety of test-subjects.

In response to Professor Chittenden’s request, the Trustees of the Bache Fund of the National Academy of Sciences appropriated $1000 towards a more extended inquiry; and other means having been assured, a project of experiments was taken under consideration.

One of the difficulties encountered was the control of test-subjects for a sufficiently long time to make conclusive estimates relative to the minimum needs of nitrogenous food in relation to the common occupations of life. Few if any volunteers, with the leisure and interest fortunately possessed by the writer, were available outside the laboratory force itself, and there were serious objections to using for test-subjects the same persons who did the chemical analyses and estimated the results.

In this dilemma the good fortune of a meeting with Surgeon-General O’Reilly of the United States Army and with General Leonard Wood--the former on his way to Madrid to attend a medical congress, and the latter _en route_ to the Philippines to take command there--happened to the writer on the S. S. _Commonwealth_, on a voyage to Italy in April, 1903.

Both these officers are medical men and research enthusiasts. They had fought yellow fever together, in coöperation with martyr Dr. Major Walter Reed, in Cuba, and the fame of their success was being talked of as one of the great triumphs of pathologic, or hygienic, science at the time of the meeting.

There was ample time on the steamer to discuss a subject of such mutual and general interest, and both officers had had, in service, experiences that led them to believe that the results obtained by the writer and his colleagues were the common possibilities of all persons under right conditions of alimentation.

General O’Reilly was of the opinion that the corps he commanded could furnish intelligent and earnest test-subjects for nutrition investigation, as it did in the yellow fever case. In the yellow fever investigation privates and officers alike had volunteered to act as test-subjects, even though their lives were at stake and many had already been sacrificed. It is to their great honour, also, that they refused to receive the bounty that was offered for test-subjects, preferring to serve science and humanity freely as volunteers rather than sell themselves as experimental risks. From such material General O’Reilly was sure that capable assistants could be secured to test the not at all dangerous or disagreeable economies of nutrition that the projected inquiry wished to solve.

Armed with letters of recommendation to the President and to the Secretary of War from General Wood, and an invitation from Surgeon-General O’Reilly to call on him if coöperation on his part were desired, the writer returned to the United States and consulted with Professors Chittenden and Bowditch relative to the desirability of army coöperation. It was believed to be just the thing wanted to facilitate the inquiry, and the writer proceeded to Washington to effect the combination.

General O’Reilly had already had the matter under consideration and was quite ready to draw up a project for presentation to the Secretary of War when Mr. Root should return to Washington from his summer vacation.

Twenty privates and three non-commissioned officers of the Hospital Corps of the United States Army under command of Dr. Lieutenant Wallace DeWitt are now quartered at New Haven in coöperation with the staff of the Sheffield Scientific School. It is the intention to learn, if possible, how little nitrogen is necessary to secure the best human efficiency; and also, if possible, to ascertain some measure of the evil effects of an excess of nitrogenous food as well as excess of food in general upon human efficiency.

The writer is grateful for the good fortune of being able to be of service in a development of interest in a subject which is of vital importance to the human race. He has enjoyed the benefits of an economic nutrition and knows its value.

The practical proof of a subject of personal application must come from such personal application. Each person must be his own doctor and his own scientist in the matter of his alimentation or he runs the risk of running amuck in his health economy. There is not so much to learn, neither is there very much to do to insure right alimentation, perfect digestion, and continuous good health; but the little required of us must be attended to with no lapses of attention.—HORACE FLETCHER.]

PHYSIOLOGICAL ECONOMY IN NUTRITION

BY RUSSELL H. CHITTENDEN

_Director of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University_