I feel it is a very great privilege to be honored with the invitation to address you today. The study of nutritional problems, like that of most other scientific problems, is of great international interest; moreover, its present important position is the result of international effort so that perhaps for this reason alone there is some justification for my presence. I am especially interested in the fact that the Section on Diseases of Children of the American Medical Association has chosen the subject of nutrition for consideration because it is becoming more and more clear with advancing knowledge that it is in the early months and years of animal and human life that this question of feeding is of most importance. It is my good fortune to have had the opportunity during the past ten years not only of carrying out experimental work on animal nutrition but also, as a