My Early Experiences in the Study of Foods and Nutrition

Abstract

This chapter was written at the request of the Editorial Committee. Among the suggestions which the Editor offered as to the kind of chapter which would be acceptable was one to the effect that the writer might prepare “... an autobiographical sketch in which he describes his own experiences as a student, a teacher, and an investigator.” It is this suggestion that has been folIowed. These reminiscences will be limited to my educational experiences and to the decade of 1907 to 1917, the period of my earliest experiences as a nutrition investigator. This was a decade of special importance for clarifying the ideas of workers in this field as to how to use animals effectively for discovering the existence of hitherto unsuspected nutrients, a task for which chemical procedures alone were inadequate. It was the decade when the initial successes were achieved in determining, in individual naturally occurring food substances, and in some mixtures of foods, the nature of the chemical deficiencies which limited their ability to support physiological well-being in an animal.