Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/574

 S68 THE aCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

which the body requires^ have in this last centoiy had their actiyities suppressed and curtailed as never before; this is true not only in seden- tary (business or professional) but also in large sections of the indus- trial classes. We should expect, then, that the traditions, customs, and '' instincts '^ of the frontiersman, the hard-working peasant, the soldier, who use from 4,000 to 6,000 calories' worth a day when they can get it, and need it all, may not necessarily prove a wise guide in the matter of food consumption, for their descendants, the bookkeeper, the broker, the skilled artisan, the factory hand, whose requirements are 2,500 to 3,000 calories a day. Hunger may be diminished by lessening muscular work, but appetite is not necessarily so; indeed, it seems that nerve-poisoning and heightened irritability resulting from overstrain and unhygienic indoor living may sometimes unduly heighten (instead of interfering with) the appetite for food ; this is also the case with the other appetites, sensibilities and cravings of a '^ nervous '^ person, in many instancea.

4. The changed condition of food materials due to the excessive utilization of high concentrates and to the use of artificial flavorings, has already been discussed; as has also the inadequacy of an inherited instinct satisfied by bulk in the stomach, for limiting the amounts of these concentrates which should be eaten.

The discrepancies, then, which are so frequently to be observed, between food requirement and food consumption, may be explained as due in part to present lack of adjustment to recent and enormous changes in environment and human activities and in the nature of foods. It seems quite possible that adaptation of diet to the activities of the organism, and other important hygienic measures, may come about, not simply through the slowly accomplished downfall of degen- erate classes and nations, which history has so often shown us — ^for neither the rich fruits of shrewd business capacity nor the activities of the altruistic can ultimately shelter physical deterioration — ^but through the further discovery of the principles of scientific manage- ment of the human organism, and through the apprehension of these by the enlightened classes and the consequent practise of them by the world's population. Should we, indeed, expect the scientific intelli- gence to accomplish so much less striking results in the study of the structure and conduct of our own machine, than in that of the simpler non-living machines ? Is it reasonable to assume that the laws of scien- tific feeding which man has already begun to apply with some success to other animals, will fail to produce results with the human species itself?

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