McCollum fed rats on a diet restricted to grains--only one kind of grain being used at a time--and found that they became restless, irritable and apprehensive. They were "on edge," rather than "full of pep." He inclines to the belief that the "obstreperousness" of the horse that "feels his oats" is due to the fact that he is suffering from an "attack" of nerves; that he is displaying pathological irritability and apprehensiveness, rather than healthy activitiy.

There are vegetarians who might more properly be called cerealists; that is, they drop flesh from their diet and substitute large quantities of cereals therefor. Usually they do this because they are told that whole wheat, for example, is an almost perfect food--"has all the elements the body needs in about the right proportion." These people not only consume too much cereal for which they suffer, but they eat their cereal in forms that tend to ferment before it digests.

Take for example, the mush dish of boiled oat-meal, to which has been added milk and sugar, so commonly eaten. It is one of the worst abominations that ever slipped down the human throat. It is practically indigestible. No saliva and no ptyalin are poured out upon such a dish and it may remain in the stomach for hours, undergoing little or no digestion, before it is permitted to pass into the intestine. Fermentation is inevitable. Cracked wheat, soaked and boiled, and then served with milk and sugar, milk and honey, milk and sweet fruits, is equally indigestible.

The oatmeal, or cracked wheat or other soaked or boiled cereal does not undergo salivary digestion, even when, and if, eaten without milk and sugar. When eaten in the usual combination, digestion is doubly impossible.

Flaked cereal foods (various types of corn flakes and other such foods) are much in use. Chemical analysis shows them to be possessed of abundant food value, though, actually, they are largely charcoal. They are said to be ready-cooked and predigested. This is a fallacy that the public must outgrow. They are pressed between rollers at intense heat and are rendered practically valueless as foods.

Whole wheat alone will not sustain life, health and growth in an ideal manner. After a shorter or longer period on such a diet, the rate of growth slackens unless, in addition to the whole wheat, the animal is also fed some green foods. Furthermore, if growth is to continue in an ideal manner, the amount of green foods must be greater than the amount of whole wheat. Hasting's experiments only serve to corroborate the correctness of the long-time observations of farmers that their horses, mules, etc., must be given grass or other green foods and cannot be fed exclusively upon grains or other dry foods for any considerable time without harm.

Wheat is the most acid-forming of the cereals. Oats seem to have the worst effect on the teeth. Rice which is probably the best of the cereals, is the staple article of food in the diet of more than half the world's human inhabitants. Cases of beri-beri in human beings have been reported in which whole and not polished rice constituted the bulk of the diet.

I have repeatedly referred to the dangers of attempting to feed man after the results of experiments on animals. For, as Berg says, "The same nutriment has very different effects on different species of animals." Maize proves harmless to fowls and pigeons. Rats maintain health on it. It produces marked polyneuritis in rabbits and scurvy in guinea pigs. Pigs fed on maize die from general malnutrition. Fowls fed on wheat maintain health while pigs and rats develop polyneuritis on this diet, and guinea pigs develop scurvy thereon.

Says Berg: "The varying reactions of different species of animals to an identical diet is still a complete enigma, and in my opinion insufficient attention has been paid to the matter. Speaking generally it would seem that graminivorous birds thrive on whole grains, but suffer from polyneuritis when the grain is hulled. In mammals, on the other hand, grain feeding may cause polyneuritis in certain circumstances, especially in rodents (except for the omnivorous rat), which are highly susceptible to acidosis. In many mammals, however, a grain diet induces scurvy instead of polyneuritis; while some animals perish from general malnutrition owing to the inadequate supply of inorganic nutriments in the grain. When grain has been thoroughly hulled, almost all animals, human beings included, become affected with polyneuritis. Are these variations due to varying requirements in respect to vitamins; or are the polyneuritic disorders due to the absence of various vitamins which act differently in different species of animals, or are essential to different species in varying degree?"

This last question of Berg's completely ignores the mineral deficiencies of grain and the varying requirements of various animals for these minerals. It completely ignores the individuality of the organization and functions of the various species. It is enough for us, at this point, that we note the evils of the largely grain diet and the confirmation of Densmore's earlier claims. While fowls thrive on a grain diet (this is only true of adult fowls), we must not overlook the fact that in a state of nature the graminivorous birds all consume large quantities of green grasses, and even consume most of the seeds or grains in their green or "milk" state, when they are alkaline and not acid.

Corn, while green and still growing, contains almost no starch, but considerable sugar. During the last two or three weeks of its maturing period, this sugar is converted into starch which, unlike sugar, is insoluble in water and therefore not readily fermentable. What is true of corn is true of other grains.

Green corn is not classed as a starch. It ranks relatively high as a base-forming food. Some of our State Agricultural Experiment stations have shown that, when green corn is detached from the stalk, it immediately begins to ripen and will accomplish as much of the ripening process in twenty-four hours, as it would have done in several weeks, had it been left on the stalk. So rapid is the transformation of the sugar into starch that in twenty-four hours, it is changed from an alkaline-ash to an acid-ash food.

Germinated grains make better food than dry grains. Grains "in milk," this is, before they have been matured, are alkaline foods, but the matured grains are acid. Fresh corn on the cob, not off the stalk for twenty-four hours or longer, is an alkaline food.

Never before in history have as much cereals and refined flours been consumed, as in America and parts of Europe, since the perfection of the rolling mill process in 1879. Bread is consumed in enormous quantities. Breakfast foods (denatured cereals) are eaten in considerable quantities in almost every household. "Health" food stores and "health" food factories turn out more cereal products than all other products combined. The advocates of whole cereals, in preference to the denatured kinds, did their work too well. Vegetarians are usually great eaters of cereals. They would receive less harm from moderate amounts of meat.