Show I J L I I rots y How slow We We May Live we Longer Unger and ana Be ie Happier I by Following the Diet on Which Science Finds These Ii Loathsome Creatures r 0 i 4 t tJ h M ViO J I t D The rat one of Y r L manki mankind's nd's Worst S s 4 enemies and 1 i r fl h r a one of its great great- F 1 f eat benefactors r a r el t s I t t t r y The lives of countless babies are expected to be saved as a result of science sciences science's study of the effect of various combinations of food on rata rats j F F ALL the many creatures that OF J menace the health and prosperity of the human race probably none is more to be dreaded than the filthy often ferocious and in every way ay loath loath- loathsome loathsome some rat Not only docs does it destroy many millions of dollars worth of property every Cry year ear but it spreads through the fleas that infest its body the deadly bu- bu bubonic bu bubonic bonic bome plague and perhaps many other diseases But now the rat as liS if in partial repa repa- reparation reparation reparation ration for the damage and suffering it is causing mankind is yielding to sCience some precious secrets which promise to t tenable o enable us to live far longer loneer enjoy bet bet- better better bet better ter health and be immensely happier than ever before For fifteen years Dr E V McCollum professor of biochemistry in the School of Hygiene and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University has been experimenting experimenting with rats rata and the facts they have revealed to him concerning the ef- ef effect effect ef effect of diet upon growth health good looks good nature and heredity are ex- ex expected expected ex expected to establish many new principles In the science of nutrition By patient study of the way rats thrive on certain kinds of food and fall fail to thrive on others othu science hopes to be beable beable beable able to save countless babies bables from rick rickets ets eta and other diseases due to insufficient clent or improper nutrition Also it hopes to tobe be able to prescribe diets for older per per- persons persons persons sons that will enable them to overcome disease and live longer than they other other- otherwise otherwise otherwise wise would Professor McCollums McCollum's laboratory is a arat arat arat rat the hotel hotel the largest and best equipped In the world orld having accommodations for rats During the tho last few months It has had only four-footed four guests but frequently every one of the rows of heavily screened cages that line the wall IS filled forthe Only normal healthy rats are used for the experiments and they are bred right here in the laboratory so BO that theIr heredity cn can n bo be taken into careful con con- con consideration in the study that is made mode of their theu health and growth As soon as arat a arat arat rat becomes too feeble or diseased to be beof beof beof of any ny further use it is 15 taken from the hott hotd and painlessly put to death The baby rats are fed withas with as care care- care ful careful regularity as any human babies The Tho first thing the they are given is orange JUice which is dripped into their tiny mouths from an c eye ee e dropper Their diet is changed every day or so as they grow older When fully matured they are put on ratIons that consist of 25 per cent maize 25 per cent wheat per pcr cent rolled oats 10 per cent seed flaxseed casein 10 per cent flax fax seed oil meal and one-half one of 1 per cent calcium carbonate With this they are aro given ordinary drinking water until they enter upon the experimental stage and then they are given distilled water Why should the tho loathsome rat be used for such experiments as Da Dr McColum is making There are arc a number of good reasons The first experiments to test the ef of effects of different diets were made modo on larger cows animals animals cows horses and goats ThC There e ever ho however were ero not at all tory satisfactory No way could be found of over Over- coming overcoming the difficult difficulty of measuring the ingredients of the I diets dicta of animals that ate so much Smaller animals had to be used and of these the rat proved the best because lt it itis itis IS the only one ono that never suffers Buffers from scurvy Other animals when hen fec fed for long forlong on certain kinds of food will develop this disease and male It im- im I Mw t I t t I S r R 7 P c a ay aP y P Kr s 4 J i vs t 1 eR i ii r I 1 A Nr a f S is 1 f w t t I 1 I r 4 t vR ti tr v vr L M I II I l r c Dr E V um and andone one of the thousands of rate rata with which for fifteen I s years h he has been making remarkably interesting end and valuable I c ment m in his laboratory at Johns Hopkins University Sometimes as asI I many as aa rats are under observation in the A tri screened cree cages rases which line the i I i A tri cree a i ryA t q r Secreta vs g 4 f fL L a t yF v k learned t tv t r t f tf 9 f V from the ti v L s a ft I 4 rat will 1 a pro pro- protect f 3 a tact this t rt A y t w ea ean n 4 prize win win- winning a ry y 1 c wing ning Japa r rz rA z A ff 1 Q r t nese nase baby r from 44 Kv v t v N Na t K a fit I v vand and other diseases Dr McCollum showing one of hi his women assistants how desk plump good natured and andY easy to handle a rat is when ben its health temper end and good looks have not been ruined Y by nn an insufficient or poorly balanced diet M possible to get any accurate id idea a of the effects of dieting Rats are easy to obtain and not too expensive e to maintain and before Dr Mc-Collum's Mc Collums Collum's experiments with them had hod gone gone ery very ery far he had every ery reason to believe that their reactions to certain diets were much the same as those of human beings when fed on the same some foods Perhaps the most interesting feature of Dr McCollums McCollum's experiments up to date is 15 the discovery that different diets affect not only olly the growth and the health of the rat but its disposition It If it is true that rats react to foods just as we wedo wedo e edo do then we shall ha hole to cat eat the same things that the happy well behaved rats do if we would avoid family quarrels di- di divorces divorces di divorces murders and other t things Dr McCollum has discovered that t when hen well nourished on a n certain diet dut a arat arat rat is sleek coated bright eyed e cd and not t at all nervous It is quite content to t o tobe be confined in one of the comfortable o rooms provided for it lt in the rat hotel It shows a pleasant Interest in exploring g its new home but when it has found out t downto how tightly it is shut in it settles down n to a n quite placid existence and shows sho s no n o desire desiro whatever to make a break for fo r freedom effect The best beat proof of the favorable ef of ef- ef feet which the kind right of diet has on o n othe the disposition of rats is found in tho thI th thease I ease with Ith which those fed on such n II dIet die t can be handled Perhaps It If all the rats s In the world could be fed in this way wa y they would not be such serious enemies s to us as they are At any rate Dr McCollum and hi assistants think nothing of opening ono on o of the rooms in the hotel that n six of these well nourished rats rate pulling pullet g them together with ith their bare hards an and d J lifting them out by their tails for some visitors visitor's inspection a Rats that have been fed in inthe the way that apparently S j w ff leads not only to health butto but to happiness also never squeal t r or attempt to bite the hand M 1 that holds them by the tail tall The The h healthy healthy althy rat does docs not in 10 inthe inthe the least mind being handled But Dut it is quite different with rats liv- liv living liv living ing on a diet that is either deficient in quantity or not rightly balanced as to Its various vanous ingredients The instant their cages are opened these rats behave like the men and women we shut up in prisons and insane lums lams asylums They show their teeth give glue loud squeals and retreat to a far corner in 10 a paniC of fright It is unsafe to attempt to handle them unless long tongs tonga are aro aroused used and even with the aid of these It is often impossible to pick them up because of their wild jumping jumping about A marvelous change takes place when these undernourished rats are given three or four weeks of proper feeding Both their dispositions and their then physical cal appearance undergo a surprising change Through diet alone Dr McCollum I Is Isable isable Isable able to do all sorts of surprising things with his rats even to lengthening or shortening their then lives The average life of a rat is about two rive j sears rivet ears It has been found that certain combinations of food will lengthen this span to three years Certain other com com- coin coin- combinations coins will shorten the year two-year span spanby by bj many ninny months and Dr McCollum I u 15 able to predict almost to the day when death will occur in the rile case of these poorly nourished rats rate The rats are fed witha with a device devico resent bung bling resembling a funnel This prevents their scat seat k kd d iQ y I Ip p bV y iw food about their cage cago and enables the observer to measure the exact amount they are are eating As a rat grows old its coat becomes moro more and more rough and its temper more and more irritable But not all the rats in Dr McCollums McCollum's cages grandfathers that look like venerable grand grand- fathers are really old in months and years Many of thorn are youngsters of only two or three months that ha e been kept on diets containing many harmful things and entirely lacking many things which are essential to health and long life It has been found that certain diets make a female rat incapable of bringing a family into the world Other diets fall fail to lessen the number of litters but make mako the baby rats rate so 80 weak eak that few of them survive any length of time On the other hand when the tho mother 1 rat at is given en a well-balanced well diet every baby in 10 ninety nino litters out of a hun hun- hundred hundred dred dyed will be bo strong and healthy If it n is true as science believes that human beings react to different diets dicta dle practically the same as liS rats do these experiments will wll be bo the moans means of saving millions of babies from early death or a long life life invalidIsm When properly fed the mother ret rat is I e solicitous of her little ones looking after lifter their every want with Ith the tho greatest tenderness But ut when hen she n is it a v A At t put on certain other diets drets she becom becomes es so unstrung that she sadly neglects her he r babies and often will attack and destroy destro p them As everybody knows a large percent percent- percentage percentage percentage age of American school children are au suf suffering l lfering f fering from the disease known as rickets racket s From his study of rats Dr McCollum is convinced that in many cases this e IS contracted by the baby from its mother mothe r and that in many others it is lS surely duo duoto du duto o to the wrong kind of feeding The doctor has repeatedly succeeded i in n producing rickets in formerly health healthy y rats lats by changing them from a well pro a portioned diet to one containing art ad ex- ex excessive e ex excessive x amount of cereals and he be- be believes be believes heves that such an excess is what hat makes make a many children rickety The effect of diet on rats is studIed studie d through several generations of the tho sera e family Rats Rat fed on an inadequate diet die t but one not sufficiently so to proven prevent t their producing a litter will die naturally natural naturally lj ly If the next two generations ar are e stead y y fod fed fedon on the tho same combination of o t the thc family usually will cease to ex- ex exist e ex exist x- x 1st by the end of the third generation The great grent mass of facts which Dr Mc- Mc McCollum Mc Collum has uncovered during his hia fifteen n 1 years of experimentation with rats are yet to be studied and assembled and their proper application atlon to human beings as ascertained ascertained When this is done dono it is quite probable that we shall ha e n a more re- re reliable reliable re reliable liable guide to the sort of food we should put into our stomachs than we have ever had before It seems entirely reasonable to e that by sticking to the tho same combinations combinations of food which have been found to I produce health and long life good looks and cheerful dispositions in rats we shall shallI I be able to insure to ourselves the same desirable things And then we shall sameI be I ready to forgive the rats at lit least a little of the tha loss and suffering they are lire contu con con- continually con continually tu causing the human race According to Dr R S Hubbard a distinguished American physician the most inter inter- inters s s J esting paper read at the tha 1 Physiological Con C Congress o n g res r e a II a i 5 which 1 he recently attended I g gf in Edinburgh Scotland was as one dealing with the the the- v investigations and I s Says cries made by Dr Sav- Sav SavI I lov lev a Russian scientist concerning rats hereditary instinct II The Tho paper stated that in one experiment ment Dr Hubbard said sald the griat great grandfather I great grandfather great great grandfather rat was let out I of a cage cago when hen an electric bell was as rung close by and at the tho same time a piece of cheese was placed in the inclosure where where- wherein wherein here I in the ratas rat was as confined but too far away ay to give gi the scent Nothing occurred and the tho che cheese was given to the rat which inch I was locked up again In half halt an hour I the bell rang and end the door opened with another piece place of cheese a little further aVo away ay with the same slime result This continued at intervals until the bell had been rung nine forty ti titi times s and the rat had find eaten nine forty-nine pieces of cheese and was evidently e ready for more When the tinkle of the electric bell sounded for the tho fiftieth time the rat in circles elides looking for tor the tidbit which ran inn 1 was liS not there Tho The research workers got the tho rodent under a microscope which showed ed that its The mouth was watering experimenters deduced that the rat had evidently learned that the tho sound of the ho bell T 1 was followed follo by II a gift of cheese The doctors then experimented descendants of rat for five generations and gradually genera genera- the until the time got less youngest member of this roo ro dent family went out only five times after the tho bell rang until It was discovered aced ered that its mouth was liS as the watering just great grandfathers lead had been after being bein paces fifty ty times s put through the th The r r Ian doctors had that It would have K taken t i eight expected of rats rata before the tho generations hereditary knol knowledge ledge would have developed tho rho l |