As an illustration of the character of the diet frequently made use of by men doing prolonged muscular work, I may quote a few figures from an article by Professor W. O. Atwater[41] and H. C. Sherman on “The effect of severe and prolonged muscular work upon Food consumption, Digestion, and Metabolism,” in which are recorded observations made upon several professional bicycle riders during a six-day race. On one day subject “M” rode 334.1 miles, consuming for food on that day meat extract, 311 grams; milk, 4937 grams; bread, 35 grams; boiled cereals, 877 grams; pastry, 142 grams; sugar, 53 grams; fruit, 2003 grams. His urine for the day contained 46.2 grams of nitrogen, corresponding to the metabolism of 288.7 grams of proteid matter. Subject “A” on one day rode 352.7 miles, taking as food, meat, 149 grams; meat extract, 24 grams; broth, 283 grams; eggs, 369 grams; butter, 78 grams; milk, 142 grams; malted milk, 78 grams; jelly, 213 grams; soup, 191 grams; bread, 361 grams; boiled cereal, 532 grams; sugar, about 400 grams; fruit, 933 grams; cocoa wine, 198 grams. His day’s urine contained 39.0 grams of nitrogen, corresponding to the metabolism of 243.7 grams of proteid material. Obviously, if such high proteid metabolism as these figures imply is a necessary concomitant of vigorous or excessive muscular activity, then a rich proteid diet is needed to make good the loss of nitrogen to the body; but we are more inclined to believe that the large quantity of nitrogen excreted was the result chiefly of the high proteid ration, and only in small measure connected with the work done. With a sufficiency of non-nitrogenous food, the energy of muscular contraction does not come in any large degree from the breaking down of proteid matter, and there would seem to be no adequate reason for assuming a necessity for such rich and excessive proteid diet as athletes in training ordinarily adopt. Yet the contrary view is almost universally held and followed. As a prominent trainer said to the writer not long ago, “if the men are not fed on a rich meat diet and plenty of it, they will grow soft and lose their strength.”