[Footnote 1: Physiological Economy in Nutrition: The Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York.] [Footnote 2: William Heinemann: London.] At the present writing the most important Health Boards of Europe[3] are planning to put the new standards of dietary economy into practical use among public charges in a manner that can only result in benefit to the wards of the nations as well as make an important saving to the taxpayers. In the most important of these foreign public health departments the Health Officer of the Board has himself practised the newly established economy for two years, and his plans are formulated on personal experience which fully confirms Professor Chittenden's report and that of the author as herein related. [Footnote 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.] At a missionary agricultural college, situated near Nashville, Tenn., where the students earn their tuition and their board while pursuing their studies, a six months' test of what is termed "Fletcherism" resulted in a saving of about one half of the drafts on the commissary, immunity from illness, increased energy, strength and endurance, and general adoption of the suggestions published in the several books of the author included in the _A. B. C. Life Series_. In the various departments and branches of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in America, and widely scattered over the world, some eight hundred employees and thousands of patients have been accumulating evidence of the efficacy of "Fletcherism" for more than three years, and scarce a month passes without a letter from Dr. Kellogg to the author containing new testimony confirming the _A. B. C._ selections and suggestions. The author has received within the past two years more than a thousand letters bearing the approval of the writers with report of benefits received which seem almost miraculous, and these include the leaders in many branches of human occupation--physiologists, surgeons, medical practitioners, artists, business men, literary workers, athletes, working men and women, and almost every degree of mental and physical activity. One of the medical advisers of King Edward, of whom the King once said: "He is a splendid doctor but a poor courtier," follows the suggestions of these books in prescribing to his sumptuous clients. CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE i SPECIAL RECOGNITION xii THE NEW GLUTTON OR EPICURE 1 THE PERSONAL CASE AND ENDORSEMENT OF DR. ERNEST VAN SOMEREN 10 EXPERIMENTS UPON HUMAN NUTRITION. NOTE BY SIR MICHAEL FOSTER, K.C.B., M.P., F.R.S. 18 PROFESSOR CHITTENDEN'S REPORT ON THE AUTHOR 25