"In the two individuals who pushed the method to its limits," wrote Sir Michael Foster, "it was found that complete bodily efficiency was maintained for some weeks upon a dietary which had a total energy value of one-half that usually taken, and comprised little more than one-third of the proteid consumed by the average man. . . . The scientific and social importance of the question is clearly immense, and it is greatly to be desired that its study should be encouraged."4

3 Dr. Hubert Higgins: "Humaniculture."

The reports of the Cambridge experiments aroused the interest of Dr. Henry P. Bowditch of Boston, and, through him, of Prof. Russell H. Chittenden, President of the American Physiological Society, Director of the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, and one of the leading physiological chemists of the world. Professor Chittenden invited Mr. Fletcher to come to Yale and submit himself to further observation in order that the scientists of America might investigate the claims of the new theory.

The story of how Mr. Fletcher went to Yale, and, on a diet of breakfast food, milk and maple sugar, beat the records of some of the best athletes in the University, has already been made familiar to the people of this country by the newspapers. However, in order that the tale may bear the weight of scientific authority, it may be well to give here the official report of the endurance tests written by Dr. W. G. Anderson, director of the Yale gymnasium.

4 For full text see "The A. B. - Z. of Our Own Nutrition," pp. 48-59; or "The New Glutton or Epicure," pp. 18-24.

"I gave to Mr. Horace Fletcher the same kind of exercises we give to the varsity crew," wrote Dr. Anderson. "They are drastic and fatiguing and cannot be done by beginners without soreness and pain resulting. The exercises he was asked to take were of a character to tax the heart and lungs, as well as to try the muscles of the limbs and trunk. I should not give these exercises to freshmen on account of their severity.

"Mr. Fletcher has taken these movements with an ease that is unlooked for. He gives evidence of no soreness or lameness, and the large groups of muscles respond the second day without evidence of distress after or during the endurance test, that is, the long run. The heart is fast but regular. It comes back to its normal beat quicker than does the hearts of other men of his weight and age.

"The case is unusual, and I am surprised that Mr. Fletcher can do the work of trained athletes and not give marked evidences of overexertion. My conclusion, given in condensed form, is this: Mr. Fletcher performs this work with greater ease and with fewer noticeable bad results than any man of his age and condition I have ever worked with."5

In making these tests the investigators took care to assure themselves that Mr. Fletcher's records were not accounted for by the fact that he had been an athlete in his youth, or on the grounds that he was a somatic freak of abnormal muscle development. Other men who had been practicing his system of eating were subjected to the same tests and it was found that they surpassed Mr. Fletcher in just so far as they had a natural advantage over him in youth or physical training.

5 "The New Glutton or Epicure," pp. 39-33.

The tests convinced Professor Chittenden that the amounts of food ordinarily consumed - particularly of the food known as "proteid," which is eaten chiefly in the form of meat - were far in excess of the real needs of the body. Therefore he initiated a series of experiments upon men of widely differing dietary habits, activities, temperaments, and physical condition, extending over a long period of time, with the purpose of determining what was the minimum of food - particularly proteid food - upon which the average person can maintain himself in physical and mental vigor.

The subjects of the first experiment were Professor Chittenden himself; Dr. Lafayette B. Mendel and Dr. Frank P. Underhill, two other physiological chemists in the Sheffield Scientific School; Dr. Arthur L. Dean, instructor in plant physiology in the same institution, and Mr. George M. Beers, a clerk in the treasurer's office.

While the work of these men was chiefly mental, they could hardly be classified strictly as sedentary, because - with the exception of Mr. Beers - they all had to be on their feet and moving about in their laboratories for the greater part of every day.

As Professor Chittenden's purpose was not to test the merits of Mr. Fletcher's claims for the benefits of mastication, but to ascertain the exact physiological requirements of man for food in general and pro-teid food in particular without introducing any conditions, he did not require his subjects to masticate their food with any unusual degree of care. The only change he made in their accustomed dietaries was pre-scriptively to reduce the amount of meat and other proteid food about one-half. During the six months that the subjects were under observation their weight remained stationary, they improved in general health and experienced a quite remarkable increase of mental clearness and energy. Furthermore, the laboratory tests revealed the fact that the composition and general character of the blood remained unimpaired and that the systems were in "nitrogenous equilibrium" - which means that the men were not paying out more than they were taking in, a condition of prime importance to the maintenance of health.

To meet the objection that the new diet theory, while meeting fully the requirements of persons of dainty dietary habits and high intellectual development, might fail to satisfy men of a more material mould, Professor Chittenden used for his next experiment a detachment of twenty soldiers, volunteers from the hospital corps of the United States Army, only thirteen of whom, however, really took part as subjects. For six months these men were quartered in a building near the Sheffield Scientific School at New Haven under command of Dr. Wallace De Witt, First Lieutenant and Assistant Surgeon of the United States Army, and subject to constant surveillance of the commanding officer and the non-commissioned officers.