On this basis, on the cost of the foregoing standard, —

per pound, at 5 cents per pound,

Class 1 would require daily: 37, say 4 pounds food, 1,200 Calories

$0 20

On a minimum basis, therefore, yet one which may be readily adopted, the nutritive material which is necessary for a man at hard work in Boston can be purchased in small quantities at retail prices at twenty cents a day, or one dollar and forty cents per week; for a man at moderate work at seventeen and one-half cents a day, or one dollar and twenty-two and one-half cents per week; for a man at light exercise or a woman at moderate work at thirteen and three-fourths cents a day, or ninety-six and one-fourth cents per week; for a woman at light exercise at twelve and onehalf cents a day, or eighty-seven and one-half cents per week.

As these purchases would be made in pounds, and as in every element a suitable addition has been made for what may be called reasonable waste, the common measure would be substantially as follows:

That does not sound like a very meagre diet.

I am not yet prepared to say how much this ration would weigh with the water added in the processes of cooking.

The bread is computed with the water in it, which the flour takes up at forty per cent. on the weight of flour.

Meats and fish may be combined with water in different portions; as the coarse or tough parts are better in soups, stews and hashes, the water added would be in large proportion.

Hominy and meal take up several times their weight in water, while vegetables shrink both in the preparation and in cooking. I should think this unit of nutrition at three and one-third pounds would weigh about five pounds after cooking. I am too much of a sedentary man, and I find that my average ration of cooked food aside from beverages is about three and one-half pounds, and on the basis of the dietary submitted I could live well at one dollar per week.

This

In anticipation of this meeting I devoted Fast Day, April 2, to some experiments. I caused one of my ovens to be substantially filled with food, in eight combinations. experiment is repeated in one of these ovens to-night, which we will presently open.

The food purchased was as follows:

The latter part of this treatise is taken from a lecture given in Columbia Col

lege, New York, at the instance of Prof. Thomas Egleston.

Twenty pounds solid, four pounds liquid, twelve pounds water, equals thirty-six pounds, put into the oven at halfpast nine A.M.; removed from oven at two P.M. Weight of cooked food thirty-two pounds; loss by evaporation of water four pounds.

I have not computed the Calories or nutrients in this quantity. It is intended to show what can be done in one oven at one time. It took somewhat less than one hour to prepare the eight combinations, namely, one dish each. They are as follows: beef and hominy hash; veal, hominy and tomato ; mutton stew; liver and bacon with corn meal; halibut nape and potato, baked; oatmeal, plain; poor man's pudding; baked Indian pudding.

You may presently test the quality of these combinations. We have put in forty pounds this time and may take out thirty-five to thirty-six.

With such a lot of food, strong in fat and nitrogen, there should be at least twelve pounds of bread and twelve pounds of vegetables, say twenty-four pounds at two and one-half cents, sixty cents; thirty-six pounds cooked as recited, one

dollar and twenty-five cents; add for dried apple sauce or some cheap kind of fruit, fifteen cents; total, sixty pounds at a cost of two dollars.

You don't half believe it. Nor did I until I had proved it more than once. Presently you shall have an object lesson.

Now, if my method of combining nutrition and arithmetic by the standard of Calories and nutrients combined has no other result, it may lead to as much attention being given to the nutrition of the human beings in city institutions as is given to feeding the horses in the city stables. From some communications that have been made to me I am inclined to think that right at this point is a place for scientific charity.

I gave a seven-course dinner party at my house a few days since to my whist club and friends, including oranges and coffee, which cost thirteen cents each for food material. Each cigar consumed after dinner cost more than the dinner. I lately gave a dinner of four courses, soup, fish, meat and vegetables, and mush with molasses for dessert, to nine of the poorer students at Harvard who want to economize; there were three others; each had a pound and a half of strong food. The cost for the twelve was sixty-one cents.

The quantity of oil of one hundred and fifty degrees flash test that will be consumed on this forty pounds is one and one-half pints, at one and one-half cents per pint; two and one-fourth cents.

There may be some variations to be made on the American standard.

In the judgment of Sir Henry Thompson, with whom I consulted personally, we concentrate our food a great deal too much in this country; we fine down our flour and lose in nutrition as well as in bulk; we also eat too much meat and fat. Moreover, the ration of meat and fat which may serve us well in winter may serve us ill in summer.

In order to meet these variations we may change the thirty-day dietary. When we substitute more grain and

vegetable food we reduce the Calories per pound and we therefore require more pounds a day.

We may also change the nutrients from starch 3, proteine 1, and fat 1, to starch 4, proteine 1.1, and fat 1.

On this basis I submit Table 2, one thousand Calories to a pound, in the ratio of starch 4, proteine 1.1, fat 1.