(Signed) Horace Fletcher.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Physiological Economy in Nutrition: The Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York.
[2] William Heinemann: London.
[3] The author is not yet permitted to publish the particulars of these reforms in process, but he has official information regarding them and is in full sympathy with them.
[4] Dr. Dewey's expression of surprise at the lay incompetence of the author is interesting in view of the fact that he himself is responsible for the untitled, unprofessional deficiency at which he wonders. When the author met Dr. Dewey, in Dayton, Ohio, where he was conducting some experiments, in 1898, he was then on the point of taking up a complete medical course with a post-graduate course of research-physiology in order to give character to his authority in advancing the cause of his amateurish discovery, as related in this book. There were the time, the energy, the means and the inclination of a student's craving inviting him to take the whole course to M.D. degree; but Dr. Dewey advised "no." "Don't you do it," said he, "you are doing good work as it is; you will be more or less influenced by existing standards which may be errors, and you may get switched off the natural track. Study your physiology after you have made your observations." Dr. Dewey has forgotten his advice of five years ago, but it was followed. Living almost constantly in an open-air and open-mind atmosphere of research in alimentary physiology ever since, thanks to Dr. Dewey's suggestion, the author has escaped the abnormal physiology which medicine deals with, and he is more and more thankful for the escape as time reveals that open-air and open-mindedness are good, both for the soul and for bodily comfort and health.
[5] Since this was written, the then accepted standards of human food requirements have not only been questioned but have been discredited and disproved. The great importance of mouth-work in the economics of digestion has been demonstrated and accepted.
[6] Pure proteid or albumin is quite tasteless but is always accompanied by tasting substance, and separation of the proteid molecule from enveloping material is an important function of mouth-capacity in digestion.
[7] Before the eruption of teeth in a child there is no secretion of saliva, only mucous; but mother's milk is strongly alkaline, and hence has no need of saliva to prepare it for digestion. All milk that has "stood" or has been mixed with water is acid, and requires saliva to give it the quality of mother's milk.
[8] The actual time required by the author during the Yale tests to secure full alimentation, maintain weight, and fully appease a "workingman's appetite," was from twenty-four to twenty-six minutes, divided into two meals for each day. The common habit is to bolt food and waste time afterwards in torpid inactivity, while all the energy is busy in the stomach and intestines trying to get rid of the great excess loaded upon them.