y in diet, corn the cheapest of all
the cereals, a vegetable oil cheaper by far than animal fat, which two
materials taken together would bring disaster upon the human race, but
if taken with the addition of cabbage or beet-tops they become capable
of maintaining mankind from generation to generation. One can safely
refer to such a diet as a balanced diet. Just as in the case of the
modern experimental biological analysis of a balanced ration in which
such a ration is given to rats and its efficiency as a diet is tested by
its capacity to support normal growth and reproduction of the species,
so here the experimental evidence is presented that corn and olive oil
may become a sustaining diet when green leaves are a supplementary
factor.

This preliminary sketch shows several important fundamentals of food and
nutrition. If one gives an animal a mixture of purified food-stuffs,
pure protein, pure starch, purified fat, and a mixture of salts like the
salts of milk, the animal will surely die. But if one substitutes
butter-fat for purified fat, and adds a water solution of the natural
salts of milk, the animal lives and thrives.

Again, the illustration shows how corn may be so supplemented with
other food-stuffs as to become extremely valuable in nutrition. It is
especially valuable at the present time because corn is comparatively
cheap and plentiful. But one asks how about pellagra? It must be here
definitely stated that the use of cornmeal is not the cause of pellagra,
provided the right kind of other foods be taken with it. Pellagra occurs
in the "corn belt" of the United States, and especially among the poorer
classes in the south. The disease has developed since the introduction
in 1880 of highly perfected milling machinery which furnishes corn and
wheat completely freed from their outer coverings. In Italy, where the
milling of corn is still primitive, pellagra is not so severe as with
us, because the corn offal is not completely removed and this contains
the accessory food substances or vitamines which are essential to life.
Pellagra is generally believed to be produced by a too exclusive use of
highly milled corn and wheat flour in association with salt meats and
canned goods, all of which are deficient in vitamines. The administration
of fresh milk is naturally indicated. Goldberger states that after the
addition of milk to the diet of a pellagrin, the typical clinical
picture of pellagra no longer persists. The