59° TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTELY 



stitution of albumins, carried out largely during the past two decades, 

 have taught us that albumins are composed of simpler substances, 

 termed amino-acids; the different native albumins are composed of 

 many amino-acids in different proportions; and all the chief plant and 

 animal albumins are in general composed of the same amino-acids, 

 though in different proportions. These amino-acids we term the 

 " building- stones " of albumin, and, as stated, the plant albumins con- 

 tain all the essential amino-acids, the same building-stones that are 

 contained in the animal albumins. When an albumin is digested, it is 

 split (torn down) into the component building-stones. These building- 

 stones are then absorbed, and with these the body, displaying a specific 

 biological selection, builds or forms its own peculiar albumins. In 

 other words, the building-stones are common to all albumins, the chem- 

 ical and biological differences in the albumins rest in the architecture 

 and not in the building-stones. Many types of houses may be con- 

 structed of brick of a common type ; and so many kinds of albumin are 

 formed of building-stones of common types; and from the common 

 albumins of plants all the building-stones needed in the formation of 

 the human albumins are to be obtained. It is clear therefore that it is 

 quite immaterial to the human body whether it forms its tissue albu- 

 mins from amino-acids derived from the digestion of animal or plant 

 albumin, i. e., these are equivalent in their nutritive values. These 

 purely physiological and chemical data, abundantly sustained by labora- 

 tory researches and animal experimentation, confirm as well as eluci- 

 date the now widely made human experience that a properly selected 

 and prepared vegetarian diet is a complete diet for all conditions and 

 periods of life, beyond the lactation term of infancy. 



Is a purely vegetarian diet better than a mixed diet, a diet contain- 

 ing a reasonable amount of albumin of animal origin? To make the 

 question physiologically fair (since meats are often hugely overeaten), 

 the ration of albumin in the two diets must be such as scientific investi- 

 gations have shown to be sufficient and normal. Possibly a gram of 

 albumin per kilo of body weight per day (equivalent to eleven ounces 

 of meat per day for a body of 150 pounds) may be accepted as the 

 normal total ration of albumin. There are absolutely no data of scien- 

 tific nature or reliable observations in practical experience tending to 

 show that either of these diets is in any way preferable physiologically 

 to the other. It is apparently immaterial to the body of a hundred and 

 fifty pounds whether in a properly selected and prepared diet the 2.2 

 ounces of albumin are exclusively of plant origin or partly derived from 

 flesh. Since all cereals and vegetables contain albumin, a mixed diet 

 always contains both plant and animal albumin, the ration of the latter 

 of which would naturally run six to eight ounces of meat per day. I 

 have used the words properly selected and prepared. It is obvious that 



