During the period of nine months the nitrogen of the urine was determined daily. The average was 5.69 grams. During the last two months and a half the average elimination was 5.40 grams for a body weight of 57.5 kilograms. Experiments showed that about 1 gram of nitrogen was eliminated in the feces and that nitrogen equilibrium could be maintained with dietaries of low calorific values (1613 and 1549 calories = 28 and 27 calories per kilogram) containing 6.40 and 5.86 grams of nitrogen. These figures correspond to diets containing 40.0 to 36.6 grams of protein instead of the 118 grams honored by habit and tradition. Professor Chittenden proclaimed such a diet as of the highest importance to health.

1 Chittenden: "Physiological Economy in Nutrition," 1904.

The case of Chittenden recalls a note from an early convert to the "Graham system" of vegetarianism. Sylvester Graham, in 1829, began the advocacy of moderation in the use of a diet consisting of vegetables, Graham bread (made of unbolted flour), fruits, nuts, salt, and pure water, and excluding meat, sauces, salads, tea, coffee, alcohol, pepper, and mustard. The letter reads as follows:1 "The first three months of my experiment on the Graham system was attended by a loss of 20 to 30 pounds of flesh. Some of my neighbors expostulated with me - told me I should destroy myself by starvation, and it was even reported in a neighboring town that I had actually died from that cause. But my appetite was increasingly good and my health was increasing, and in a short time my headaches, colds, costiveness, and rheumatism left me entirely, together with my hypochondriacal and gloomy state of mind, and have not returned since, notwithstanding I have been as much exposed to wet and cold as at any period of my life".

Chittenden's experiments were not confined to an individual nor to a single group of individuals. Other experiments were made on professional men, on student athletes in training, and on soldiers under military rigime. The daily nitrogen in the urine in periods extending from five to nine months averaged as shown in the table on p. 339 in the individuals belonging to the three groups.

At convenient periods during the experiments it was determined that the body was being maintained in nitrogenous equilibrium on the diet which gave rise to the stated amounts of urinary nitrogen (see p. 279).

The professional group alleged a greater keenness for its work, the athletic group won championships in games, and the soldiers maintained perfect health and strength, many professing repugnance to meat when they were allowed it after five months of practical abstinence.

1 Charles Clapp: "The Graham Journal of Health and Longevity," Boston, 1837, i, 57.

Although it is possible that the alleged improved mental condition1 may have been due to suggestion (p. 486), still the fact remains that it has been proved by Chittenden's work that the allowance of protein necessary for continued health and strength may be reduced during many months to half or less of what the habit of the appetite suggests.

It remains to be seen whether this quantity of protein in the ration, which is not greater than the body would metabolize in starvation, is advisable as a program for the whole of one's adult life.

The foods with the strongest flavors are meats, which therefore add relish to a repast and stimulate the digestive secretions.

Chittenden believes that the large quantity of protein in an ordinary diet is due to self-indulgence. He protests against such indulgence, and thinks that a needless strain is thereby imposed upon the liver, the kidneys, and other organs concerned in the transformation and elimination of the end-products of protein metabolism.

1 Chittenden: Loc. cit., p. 51.

Another advocate of a low protein dietary has arisen in the person of Hindhede,1 who advocates as ideal a diet consisting of bread, potatoes, and fruit, together with a small quantity of milk when this latter is obtainable. It is avowedly a "back-to-the-farm" dietary. Splendid health, both of body and mind, and the peasants' comparative immunity to indigestion, kidney and liver disease, to diabetes, as well as an absolute immunity to gout, is the alluring prospect held out by the following dietary:

Graham bread................................. 500 grams.

Potatoes...................................... 1000 "

Vegetable margarin............................. 150 "

Apples......................................... 600 "

Milk.......................................... 500 c.c.

Such a diet gives a urine which dissolves uric acid readily, the addition of the apples appreciably increasing this power. Hindhede also states that the ingestion of 5 kilograms of tomatoes with 600 grams of Graham bread and 150 grams of margarin daily for four days also produces a urine having a good solvent power over uric acid.