Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-02-27
COLLEGIANS' MEAL TEST
Missouri University Students Dispense With Dinner.
'ALTH AND BRAINS

Y-
 Experiment to Do Without the NTad-
 day Meal Is to Last Four Months.
 Over Two Hundred Students Have
 Pledged Themselves to Give 1t a
 Fair Trial.
 more brilliant intellectually and much better physically has led 250 students of Missouri university to pledge them selves to eat only two meals a day for four months. They have eliminated dinner, which is served in the middle of the day in the Missouri institution, says a Columbia dispatch.
 The leaders in this food temperance movement are seniors, and that makes 1t all the more remarkable. It is not the custom of seniors in any seats of learning to confess that their mental faculties could be sharpened. But those in Missouri university who have given the two meals day rule fair test declare that they are not only in far better physical condition, but that their minds are incapable of more and better work; also they have cut down the cost of living exactly one-third.
 The Missouri students have conduct ed independent experiments. They be- gan with the Investigations of DeNean Stafford of Bolivar, Mo-, and Thomas Wright Robinson of Macon, Mo-, who are in the senior law department. Both devoted their spare time to studying chemistry, and independently they ar- rived at the conclusion that mankind is miserable because Of the abuse put upon Little Nary
 Stafford and Robinson talked to Thomas w. r. Schurmeyer, also law department senior and the attorney of Lathrop dormitory, who became most enthusiastic and who announced that he would make the first test He made formal declaration of his intent to his fellow students In the dornitory, say. ing that he would not eat the midday meal, dinner. for thirty days. At first the others thought it was a joke, and when they found that Schurmeyer was very much in earnest they chaffed him shamefully. The other students made life so miserable for him that he was about to abandon the experiment when Stafford and Robinson made public an. nouncement that they were going to try the two meals day experiment. A week later two more students, B. B. Forbes and A. NJ. Peary. poined the experimenters, and the others wearied of poking fun at them and became really interested
 At the end of his thirty days of going without dinner each student made a formal report There was remarka. ble similarity. Each young man said that he suffered from hunger during the first two weeks, especially at night, but in no case was the craving for food severe, and it soon passed away. Each of them said that he ate no more at breakfast and supper than had been his habit when he also ate dinner. +"'
 They were unanimous in reporting a marked improvement in health and spirits, the greatest benefit being no ticed in the third week. The effect up- on their minds was more pronounced than on their body. Stafford and Rob- inson gained four and six pounds in weight, but the weight of the others was not affected. Each of the four as- serted vigorously that he was not only able to study more, but that he could master subject in far less time. This made the students take deep interest in the two meals day plan.
 A mass meeting was called, and near ly the whole student body attended. The reading of the reports aroused such enthusiasm that a resolution abolishing dinner was offered before the discussion. But the pioneers said they had better talk over the matter first. The question was raised about the meal it was best to omit.
 "We have all experimented on that" Stafford told them. "I tried going without each meal in turn, and found that dinner is the least difficult to eliminate. We all found that break fast is the most essential of all. Per sonally I found it almost impossible to study in the morning when I went without my breakfast. When went without supper I found that became hungry about bedtime and that did not sleep as well as usual"
 As the discussion progressed opposi. ton developed. While majority were in favor of eliminating dinner, the opposition managed to retain their midday meal for time by having the proposed change referred to the facul ty, and to that august body was pre- scented this petition: ~.
 Whereas, By scientific Investigation il has been discovered that mans health comfort and convenience are best con- served by eating two meals a day instead of three, and, Whereas, This plan would reduce oul board from $1.50 week to $1 a week. and
 Whereas, We desire to live as econorn- icalIy possible, we most respectfully request that no noon meal be served iu the future in Lathrop hall.
 It is a wise faculty that knows its own business. That of Missouri uni versity, seeing into the future and re alizing the possibilities of official ac' ton in taking from its students their daily dinner, astutely announced that it was none of it's affair. If the stu dents wished to go without their din, ner the faculty could not make them eat; if they wanted their dinner it was being served in Lathrop hall.
 The two meals day advocates call