"In 1901 Dr. Ernest Van Someren submitted to the British Medical
Association, and afterwards to the Congress of Physiologists at Turin,
an account of some experiments initiated by Mr. Horace Fletcher.
These experiments went to show that the processes of bodily nutrition
are very profoundly affected by the preliminary treatment of the
food-stuffs in the mouth and indicated that great advantages follow
from the adoption of certain methods in eating. The essentials of these
special methods, stated briefly and without regard to certain important
theoretical considerations discussed by Dr. Van Someren, consist of a
specially prolonged mastication which is necessarily associated with
an insalivation of the food-stuffs much more thorough than is obtained
with ordinary habits.
"The results brought to light by the preliminary experimental trials
went to show that such treatment of the food has a most important
effect upon the economy of the body, involving in the first place a
very notable reduction in the amount of food--and especially of proteid
food--necessary to maintain complete efficiency.
"In the second place this treatment produced, in the experience of its
originators, an increase in the subjective and objective well-being
of those who practise it, and, as they believe, in their power of
resistance to the inroads of disease. These secondary effects may
indeed be almost assumed as a corollary of the first mentioned;
because there can be little doubt that the ingestion of food--and
perhaps especially of proteid food--in excess of what is, under the
best conditions, sufficient for maintenance and activity, can only be
deleterious to the organism, clogging it with waste products which may
at times be of a directly toxic nature.
"In the autumn of 1901 Mr. Fletcher and Dr. Van Someren came to
Cambridge with the intention of having the matter more closely inquired
into, with the assistance of physiological experts. The matter evoked
considerable interest in Cambridge, and observations were made not only
upon those more immediately interested, but upon other individuals,
some of whom were themselves medical men and trained observers.
"Certain facts were established by these observations, which, however,
are to be looked upon as still of a preliminary nature. The adoption of
the habit of thorough insalivation of the food was found in a consensus
of opinion to have an immediate and very striking effect upon appetite,
making this more discriminating, and leading to the choice of a simple
dietary and in particular reducing the craving for flesh food. The
appetite, too, is beyond all question fully satisfied with a dietary
considerably less in amount than with ordinary habits is demanded.
"Numerical data were obtained in several cases, but it is not proposed
to deal with these in detail here, as they need the supplementary study
which will be shortly referred to.
"In two individuals who pushed the method to its limits it was found
that complete bodily efficiency was maintained for some weeks upon a
dietary which had a total energy value of less than one-half of that
usually taken, and comprised little more than one-third of the proteid
consumed by the average man.
"It may be doubted if continued efficiency could be maintained with
such low values as these, and very prolonged observations would be
necessary to establish the facts. But all subjects of the experiments
who applied the principles intelligently agreed in finding a very
marked reduction in their needs, and experienced an increase in their
sense of well-being and an increase in their working powers.
"One fact fully confirmed by the Cambridge observations consists in the
effect of the special habits described upon the waste products of the
bowel. These are greatly reduced in amount, as might be expected; but
they are also markedly changed in character, becoming odourless and
inoffensive, and assuming a condition which suggests that the intestine
is in a healthier and more aseptic condition than is the case under
ordinary circumstances.
"Although the experiments hitherto made are, as already stated, only
preliminary in nature and limited in scope, they establish beyond all
question that a full and careful study of the matter is urgently called
for.
"For this fuller study the Cambridge laboratories do not possess at
present either the necessary equipment or the funds to provide it. For
the detailed study of the physical efficiency of a man under varying
conditions, elaborate and expensive apparatus is required; and the
advantages claimed for the special treatment of the food just discussed
can only be fully tested by prolonged and laborious experiments calling
for a considerable staff of workers.
"It is of great importance that the mind of the lay public should
be disabused of the idea that medical science is possessed of final
information concerning questions of nutrition. This is very far indeed
from being the case. Human nutrition involves highly complex factors,
and the scientific basis for our knowledge of the subject is but small;
where questions of diet are concerned, medical teaching, no less than
popular practice, is to a great extent based upon empiricism.
"But the scientific and social importance of the question is clearly
immense, and it is greatly to be desired that its study should be
encouraged.
"M. FOSTER.
"April 26th, 1902."
* * * * *
The interest excited in Professor Foster was coincident with that
espoused by Dr. Professor Henry Pickering Bowditch, Professor
of Physiology of Harvard Medical School, and Dean of American
Physiologists. Under the ægis of such encouragement the later
developments are not at all surprising. In order to extend and
verify the findings of Dr. F. Gowland Hopkins, of Cambridge
University, England, as stated in the preceding note by Professor
Foster, Professor Russell H. Chittenden, President of the American
Physiological Society, Director of the Sheffield Scientific School
of Yale University, and one of the leading chemico-physiological
authorities of the world, as measured by accepted research work,
volunteered to submit the author to further test. The report of this
test is too long for reproduction here. It was first published in the
_Popular Science Monthly_ of June 1903, but will be found in full in
the "A. B.-Z." just referred to. The special reference to the author's
case and the quoted report of Dr. William G. Anderson, Director of the
Yale Gymnasium which tells the story of efficiency, was as follows:
Extract from an article by Professor Russell H. Chittenden in _Popular
Science Monthly_, June, 1903.
"The writer has had in his laboratory for several months past a
gentleman (Horace Fletcher) who has for some five years, in pursuit of
a study of the subject of human nutrition, practised a certain degree
of abstinence in the taking of food and attained important economy
with, as he believes, great gain in bodily and mental vigour and with
marked improvement in his general health. Under his new method of
living he finds himself possessed of a peculiar fitness for work of
all kinds and with freedom from the ordinary fatigue incidental to
extra physical exertion. In using the word abstinence possibly a wrong
impression is given, for the habits of life now followed have resulted
in the disappearance of the ordinary craving for food. In other words,
the gentleman in question fully satisfies his appetite, but no longer
desires the amount of food consumed by most individuals.
"For a period of thirteen days, in January, he was under observation
in the writer's laboratory, his excretions being analysed daily with a
view to ascertaining the exact amount of proteid consumed. The results
showed that the average daily amount of proteid metabolised was 41.25
grams, the body-weight (165 pounds) remaining practically constant.
Especially noteworthy also was the very complete utilisation of the
proteid food during this period of observation. It will be observed
here that the daily amount of proteid food taken was less than one half
that of the minimum Voit standard, and it should also be mentioned that
this apparent deficiency in proteid food was not made good by any large
consumption of fats or carbohydrates. Further, there was no restriction
in diet. On the contrary, there was perfect freedom of choice, and the
instructions given were to follow his usual dietetic habits. Analysis
of the excretions showed an output of nitrogen equal to the breaking
down of 41.25 grams of proteid per day, as an average, the extremes
being 33.06 grams and 47.05 grams of proteid.
"In February, a more thorough series of observations was made,
involving a careful analysis of the daily diet, together with analysis
of the excreta, so that not alone the proteid consumption might be
ascertained, but likewise the total intake of fats and carbohydrates.
The diet consumed was quite simple, and consisted merely of a prepared
cereal food, milk and maple sugar. This diet was taken twice a day
for seven days, and was selected by the subject as giving sufficient
variety for his needs and quite in accord with his taste. No attempt
was made to conform to any given standard of quantity, but the subject
took each day such amounts of the above foods as his appetite craved.
Each portion taken, however, was carefully weighed in the laboratory,
the chemical composition of the food determined, and the fuel value
calculated by the usual methods.
"The following table gives the daily intake of proteids, fats and
carbohydrates for six days, together with the calculated fuel value,
and also the nitrogen intake, together with the nitrogen output through
the excreta. Many other data were obtained showing diminished excretion
of uric acid, ethereal sulphates, phosphoric acid, etc., but they need
not be discussed here.
+-----+-----------------------------------------+---------------------+
| | | |
| | Intake. | Output of Nitrogen. |
| | | |
| +--------+------+-------+--------+--------+------+-------+------+
| | | | | | | | | |
| |Proteids| Fats |Carbohy|Calories|Nitrogen|Urine | Fæces |Total |
| | | | | | | | | |
+-----+--------+------+-------+--------+--------+------+-------+------+
| | Grams. |Grams.| Grams.| | Grams. |Grams.| Grams.|Grams.|
| | | | | | | | | |
|Feb 2| 31.3 | 25.3 | 125.4 | 900 | 5.02 | 5.27 | 0.18 | 5.45 |
| 3| 46.8 | 40.4 | 266.2 | 1690 | 7.50 | 6.24 | 0.81* | 7.05 |
| 4| 48.0 | 38.1 | 283.0 | 1747 | 7.70 | 5.53 | 0.81* | 6.34 |
| 5| 50.0 | 40.6 | 269.0 | 1711 | 8.00 | 6.44 | 0.81* | 7.25 |
| 6| 47.0 | 41.5 | 267.0 | 1737 | 7.49 | 6.83 | 0.81* | 7.64 |
| 7| 46.5 | 39.8 | 307.3 | 1852 | 7.44 | 7.50 | 0.17 | 7.67 |
| | | | | | | | | |
+-----+--------+------+-------+--------+--------+------+-------+------+
|Daily| | | | | | | | |
|Av. | 44.9 | 38.0 | 253.0 | 1606 | 7.19 | 6.30 | 0.60 | 6.90 |
+-----+--------+------+-------+--------+--------+------+-------+------+
*Average of the four days.
"The main things to be noted in these results are, first, that the
total daily consumption of proteid amounted on an average to only 45
grams, and that the fat and carbohydrate were taken in quantities
only sufficient to bring the total fuel value of the daily food up
to a little more than 1,600 large calories. If, however, we eliminate
the first day, when for some reason the subject took an unusually
small amount of food, these figures are increased somewhat, but they
are ridiculously low compared with the ordinarily accepted dietary
standards. When we recall that the Voit standard demands at least 118
grams of proteid and a total fuel value of 3,000 large calories daily,
we appreciate at once the full significance of the above figures. But
it may be asked, was this diet at all adequate for the needs of the
body--sufficient for a man weighing 165 pounds? In reply, it may be
said that the appetite was satisfied and that the subject had full
freedom to take more food if he so desired. To give a physiological
answer, it may be said that the body-weight remained practically
constant throughout the seven days' period, and further, it will be
observed by comparing the figures of the table that the nitrogen of
the intake and the total nitrogen of the output were not far apart.
In other words, there was a close approach to what the physiologist
calls nitrogenous equilibrium. In fact, it will be noted that on
several days the nitrogen output was slightly less than the nitrogen
taken in. We are, therefore, apparently justified in saying that the
above diet, simple though it was in variety, and in quantity far below
the usually accepted requirement, was quite adequate for the needs
of the body. In this connection it may be asked, what were the needs
of the body during this seven days' period? This is obviously a very
important point. Can a man on such a diet, even though it suffices to
keep up body-weight and apparently also physiological equilibrium,
do work to any extent? Will there be under such condition a proper
degree of fitness for physical work of any kind? In order to ascertain
this point, the subject was invited to do physical work at the Yale
University Gymnasium and placed under the guidance of the director of
the gymnasium, Dr. William G. Anderson. The results of the observations
there made, are here given, taken verbatim from Dr. Anderson's report
to the writer.
"'On the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th of February, 1903, I gave to Mr. Horace
Fletcher the same kind of exercises we give to the Varsity Crew. 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 being poisoned
by carbon dioxide. There is no evidence of distress after or during
the endurance test, _i. e._, the long run. The heart is fast but
regular. It comes back to its normal beat quicker than does the heart
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 over
exertion. As I am in almost constant training I have gone over the
same exercises and in about the same way and have given the results
for a standard of comparison. (The figures are not given here.)
"'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.'
"To appreciate the full significance of this report, it must be
remembered that Mr. Fletcher had for several months past taken
practically no exercise other than that involved in daily walks about
town.
"In view of the strenuous work imposed during the above four days,
it is quite evident that the body had need of a certain amount of
nutritive material. Yet the work was done without apparently drawing
upon any reserve the body may have possessed. The diet, small though it
was, and with only half the accepted requirement in fuel value, still
sufficed to furnish the requisite energy. The work was accomplished
with perfect ease, without strain, without the usual resultant
lameness, without taxing the heart or lungs, and without loss of
body-weight. In other words, in Mr. Fletcher's case at least, the body
machinery was kept in perfect fitness without the consumption of any
such quantities of fuel as has generally been considered necessary.
"Just here it may be instructive to observe that the food consumed
by Mr. Fletcher during this seven days' period--and which has been
shown to be entirely adequate for his bodily needs during strenuous
activity--cost eleven cents daily, thus making the total cost for
the seven days seventy-seven cents! If we contrast this figure with
the amounts generally paid for average nourishment for a like period
of time, there is certainly food for serious thought. Mr. Fletcher
avers that he has followed his present plan of living for nearly five
years; he usually takes two meals a day; has been led to a strong
liking for sugar and carbohydrates in general and away from a meat
diet; is always in perfect health, and is constantly in a condition of
fitness for work. He practises thorough mastication, with more complete
insalivation of the food (liquid as well as solid) than is usual,
thereby insuring more complete and ready digestion and a more thorough
utilisation of the nutritive portions of the food.
"In view of these results, are we not justified in asking ourselves
whether we have yet attained a clear comprehension of the real
requirements of the body in the matter of daily nutriment? Whether we
fully comprehend the best and most economical method of maintaining
the body in a state of physiological fitness? The case of Mr. Fletcher
just described; the results noted in connection with certain Asiatic
peoples; the fruitarians and _nut_arians in our own country recently
studied by Professor Jaffa, of the University of California; all
suggest the possibility of much greater physiological economy than we
as a race are wont to practise. If these are merely exceptional cases,
we need to know it, but if, on the other hand, it is possible for
mankind in general to maintain proper nutritive conditions on dietary
standards far below those now accepted as necessary, it is time for us
to ascertain that fact. For, if our standards are now unnecessarily
high, then surely we are not only practising an uneconomical method
of sustaining life, but we are subjecting ourselves to conditions the
reverse of physiological, and which must of necessity be inimical to
our well being. The possibility of more scientific knowledge of the
natural requirements of a healthy nutrition is made brighter by the
fact that the economic results noted in connection with our metabolism
examination of Mr. Fletcher is confirmatory of similar results
obtained under the direction and scrutiny of Sir Michael Foster at the
University of Cambridge, England, during the autumn and winter of last
year; and by Dr. Ernest Van Someren, Mr. Fletcher's _collaborateur_,
in Venice, on subjects of various ages and of both sexes, some account
of which has already been presented to the British Medical Association
and to the International Congress of Physiologists at its last meeting
at Turin, Italy. At the same time emphasis must be laid upon the fact
that no definite and positive conclusions can be arrived at except as
the result of careful experiments and observations on many individuals
covering long periods of time. This, however, the writer hopes to do
in the very near future, with the coöperation of a corps of interested
observers.
"The problem is far-reaching. It involves not alone the individual, but
society as a whole, for beyond the individual lies the broader field
of the community, and what proves helpful for the one will eventually
react for the betterment of society and for the improvement of mankind
in general."
This test of work was accomplished on food of the nitrogen value of
less than 7 grams daily, whereas the text-books declare that from 16 to
25 grams of nitrogen are necessary to human existence. The heat value
of the food consumed during the test, and which was like in amount to
what had been habitually taken by the author for about five years
previously (less than 1600 large Calories), was only _half the amount_
set down by the majority of the presently-accepted authorities as
necessary to run the body of a man of the author's weight and activity.
The heat-economy-showing was verified a week or two later in a 32-hour
calorimeter measurement in the apparatus of Professors Atwater and
Benedict at Middletown, Conn.
Evidence of even more significant value has accumulated outside
the field of the author's own experiments and tests. After more
than a year of careful trial among some thousands of patients and
among some hundreds of earnest employees, Dr. James H. Kellogg,
of the great Battle Creek Sanitarium, has adopted the suggestions
contained in this book as the first requirement of the treatment at
the Sanitarium. In like manner, Dr. Edward Hooker Dewey, the sturdy
advocate of dietary-economy for the past thirty years, author of
the "No-Breakfast" regimen, and various books upon the subject of
auto-nutrition and dietary-rest, bent his attention upon the effect
of thorough buccal digestion prescribed after a period of rest from
outside feeding, and here follows his appreciation as extracted from
personal letters.
Before quoting from the high appreciation of Dr. Dewey and Dr.
Kellogg it may be well to state that the author stands simply for a
test-subject-factor in a commonweal natural inquiry and no praise
of the subject attaches to the person of the author. Whatever the
author is, in the enjoyment of health and strength, is the result of
natural causes which have developed during his study of the natural
requirements in our nutrition. Please forget the personal element and
consider that what is the author's gain in efficiency as related, is
the possible possession of the reader as well, and whatever work or
test the author performs is done as much for the reader as for the
author himself.
The several extracts from the letters of Drs. Kellogg and Dewey; the
statement relative to an endurance-test made on the author's fiftieth
birthday, on a bicycle in France, volunteered by Edward W. Redfield,
last year's Medal-of-Honorist at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts,
Philadelphia, as well as medalist of last Exposition Universale, Paris;
are appreciated and accepted for the subject they endorse; and, as
before stated, are entirely impersonal. Instead of using dumb animals
for test subjects and getting their unwilling, and sometimes abnormally
deranged, participation, the author takes pleasure in submitting to
the tests himself, and is thus able to state "symptoms" and "feelings"
more accurately, perhaps, than any dog could do. Were vivisection
necessary the author would willingly submit to that inconvenience also;
but thanks to the skill of a Pawlow, and the ingenuity of a Bowditch
coupled with the patience and persistence of a Cannon, as fully
related in the "A.B.-Z.," we not only get the economic results but we
are able to know and even see some of the "reasons for things" as well.
Interesting testimony and comment relative to the present study will
be found at the end of the volume in communications from Commandante
Cesare Agnelli, Clarence F. Low, Esquire, Baron Randolph Natili, and
one of unusual suggestiveness, as evidence of the need of further study
of nutrition, from Dr. Hubert Higgins of Cambridge, England.