NUTRITION BOOKS

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

As a Harvard graduate, Class of 1900, living near the college, one of the greatest advantages that I enjoy is the Widener Library. In this regard I have a suggestion and request to make in respect to books on the subject of nutrition. In recent years a great interest has developed in the field of human nutrition. It has been found that chemical additives used in commercially available foods are devitalizing such foods and seriously impairing their nutritive value.

A great many books have been recently published here and abroad on the subject of food and nutrition written by physicians. But hardly any of these are listed in the library card index. There are somewhere between 50 and 100 books listed under Foods, but they are mostly between 50 and 100 years old, written before most of our present nutritional problems had arisen. These old books can all be taken out by the Harvard and Radcliffe students, unmarried and married with children. A few modern books are listed in the index, but they are mostly in the Medical School Library and some in the Lamont Library, and they can not be taken out by the students. For example, among the books that I suggest is "Tomorrow's Food," by James Rorty and N. P. Norman, M.D. A large number of Rorty's books can be taken out, but this one is at the Medical School Library. So is Harvey Wiley's "History of a Crime." All his many other books can be taken out. Many books of Upton Sinclair are listed, only one can not be read, "The Art of Health."

Naturally books belonging to Harvard are not in one building. Books that law students and law professors need are in the Law School Library. Books to be used by students of the Medical School are in the Medical School Library. Books for students studying mining and geology are in the Mining Library. However, diet and nutrition is everybody's problem, not for medical students alone, and books on food should be available to all. If students would like to read any of them, I would be glad to arrange to have the following books given to the Widener Library for use by all college students and other card holders.

I find that one book, "Feel Like A Million," is in the Cambridge Public Library, but it is usually out.

The Medical School may or may not unanimously approve this step, but as Alexander Pope remarked, "Who will decide when doctors disagree?" William P. Everts '00.