Rubner1 cites the following food values consumed daily per inhabitant of different cities, based upon municipal statistics of gross consumption:

Municipal Food Statistics

1 Rubner: von Leyden's "Handbuch der Ernahrung," 1903, i, 160.

In contrast to this, comparative uniformity hospital dietaries, as regulated by the management of such institutions, vary greatly.

Rubner1 cites the following hospital dietaries:

Hospital Dietaries

An interesting study of the dietary of a poorhouse in Helsingfors, Finland, was made by Elizabeth Koch.2 A total of 3355 calories was offered to each of five old men daily and 2430 were taken per person. Of the food offered, 1500 calories were contained in bread. The dietary was thus arranged:

Breakfast. Daily: 200 gm. potatoes; \ liter skimmed milk; 40 gm. butter.

Four times a week, 50 gm. salt fish (Stromling); bread, 200 gm. Dinner. Daily: 200 gm. bread.

Four times weekly, 100 gm. meat; 200 gm. potatoes.

Twice a week bean soup. Beets and barley also furnished. Supper. Mostly bread, skimmed milk, and wheaten grits.

When taking this diet the inmates of the institution consumed an average of 106 grams of protein, 55 grams of fat, 361 grams of carbohydrates, and 34 grams of salts. The total quantity of milk offered, amounting to between 667 and 1000 c.c. daily per person, was in each case completely taken. Old men of seventy-five years took a fair quantity of food, as appears from the following analysis:

1 Rubner: Loc. cit., p. 157.

2 Koch, E.: "Skan. Archiv fur Physiologie," 1911, xxv, 315.

The author concludes that the quantity of food needed by old men is slightly below the normal (see p. 129).

The population of a city will ordinarily sustain itself in accordance with its needs. In public institutions, however, such as poorhouses, prisons, asylums, hospitals, and in military and naval establishments, scientific knowledge of the needs of the individual becomes a very important consideration. The prolonged endurance of an army of soldiers is just as dependent on an ample army ration as is the battleship dependent on its supply of fuel. Not only the quantity of the food makes for the well-being, but it must taste well. No amount of actual fuel value could compel the American soldiers of the Spanish-American war to eat the "embalmed beef" furnished by the Government. The flavor is to the man what oil is to the machinery of the battleship. Without flavor in the food the digestive apparatus does not run smoothly. In ordinary civilized life even psychical influences act. The cloth on the table must be spotless, and the environment inviting.

In the process of manufacture of Liebig's extract of beef muscle creatin is largely converted into creatinin. Such an extract, which contains also xanthin, is not strictly a food, since its constituents are largely ready for elimination in the urine.1 Burgi2 shows that if meat extract be administered it is excreted in the urine, excepting 4.57 per cent, of its nitrogen, 14.85 per cent, of its carbon, and 17.55 Per cent, of its energy content.

Its value lies in its flavor, which promotes the proper flow of the digestive juices.8

It may be incidentally remarked that the principal value of many "patent" foods, "invalid" foods, etc., lies in their flavor. If agreeable to the taste of the individual they usually afford a harmless indulgence. That beef, milk, cream, butter, and rice are quite as suitable for all the purposes of proper living is a fact not sufficiently advertised. The old-time fraud of "patent" foods being "brain restorers" is as foolish a lie as can be written.

1 Rubner: "Zeitschrift fur Biologie," 1883, xix, 343. 2 Burgi: "Archiv fur Hygiene," 1904, li, 1. 3 Voit: "Stoffwechsel," 1881, p. 449.

One takes as food milk, eggs, various meats, such as beef, veal, pork, mutton, fish; also cereals, such as bread, rice, corn, macaroni, beans, and peas. Sometimes alcoholic beverages are added. The calorific values may be calculated by determining the composition of the various nutrient materials by analysis and by multiplying the number of grams of each constituent by the factor which represents its fuel value to the organism (see p. 42).

As a simple illustration of this the following experiment of Rubner1 may be cited: A man weighing 46 kilograms ate nothing but eggs for two days - 22 on the first day and 20 on the second. The 22 eggs contained 1017.4 grams of material; the 20 eggs, 878.8 grams, an average of 948.1 grams per day. Since 100 grams of egg contain 14.1 grams of protein and 10.9 grams of fat, 948.1 grams would contain a daily allowance of 133.6 grams of protein and 103 grams of fat. If Rubner's standard values for the energy content are used, the result will be as follows:

This dietary of eggs was, therefore, nearly sufficient for the fuel requirement of this undersized individual. Notwithstanding the large amount of protein in the dietary there was a loss of body protein equal to 7.5 grams per day.

The results of an exclusive milk diet are thus summarized by Rubner:2 Milk (2438 grams), containing 84 grams of protein and two-thirds of the requirement of energy for the individual, produced a deposit of protein equal to 6.7 grams daily (p. 279). To cover a requirement of 2400 calories daily 3410 grams of milk would be needed, which contain 140 grams of protein.

1 Rubner: "Zeitschrift fur Biologie," 1879, xv, 127.

2 Rubner: von Leyden's "Handbuch der Ernahrungstherapie," 1903, i, 132.

For a laboring man with a requirement of 3080 calories, 4380 grams of milk with 180 grams of protein would be necessary.

Thomas1 drank 10.7 liters of whole milk (6781 calories) in one day, taking it up to the limit of his capacity. Of 53.3 grams of nitrogen in the milk, 28.7 grams appeared in the urine of the day and 21.1 grams were added to the body. Of 67.4 grams of salts contained in the milk, 36.9 grams were present in the urine of the twenty-four-hour period and 29.5 grams were passed in the feces attributable to the diet; the power to absorb such a diet was therefore great. Dried milk powder preparations were absorbed with as great ease as whole milk.