PHYSIOLOGICAL ECONOMY IN NUTRITION. 125 



fuel value of 3,370 large calories. Atwater, on the other hand, from 

 his large number of observations, is inclined to place the daily proteid 

 requirement at 125 grams, with sufficient fat and carbohydrate to 

 equal a total fuel value of 3,500 large calories for a man doing a 

 moderate amount of work; while for a man at hard work the daily 

 diet is increased to 150 grams of proteid, and with fats and carbo- 

 hydrates to yield a total fuel value of 4,500 large calories. These 

 standards are very generally accepted as being the requirement for 

 the average individual under the given conditions of work, and it 

 may be that these figures actually represent the daily needs of the 

 body. Suppose, on the other hand, that we have in these figures false 

 standards, or, in other words that the quantities of foodstuffs called 

 for are altogether larger than the actual demands of the body require. 

 In this case there is a positive waste of valuable food material which 

 we may calculate in dollars and cents ; a loss of income incurred daily 

 which might be expended more profitably in other directions. To the 

 wage-earner with a large family, who must of necessity husband his 

 resources, there is in our hypothesis a suggestion of material gain not 

 to be disregarded. The money thus saved might be expended for the 

 education of the children, for the purchase of household treasures 

 tending to elevate the moral and mental state of the occupants, or in 

 many other ways that the imagination can easily supply. This kind 

 of saving, however, is purely a question of economy, and in some strata 

 of society would be objected to as indicative of a condition of sordid- 

 ness. It has come to be a part of our personal pride to have a well- 

 supplied table, and to eat largely and freely of the good things pro- 

 vided. The poorer man takes pride in furnishing his family with a 

 diet rich in expensive articles of food, and imagines that by so doing 

 he is inciting them to heartier consumption and to increased health 

 and strength. He would be ashamed to save in this way, under the 

 honest belief that by so doing he might endanger the health of his 

 dear ones. But let us suppose that this hypothetical waste of food 

 is not merely uneconomical, that it is undesirable for other and 

 weightier reasons. Indeed, let us suppose that this unnecessary con- 

 sumption of food is distinctly harmful to the body, that it is physio- 

 logically uneconomical, and that in our efforts to maintain a high de- 

 gree of efficiency we are in reality putting upon the machinery of the 

 body a heavy and entirely uncalled for strain which is bound to prove 

 more or less detrimental. If there is truth in this assumption, our 

 hypothesis takes on a deeper significance, and we may well inquire 

 whether there are any reasonable grounds for doubting the accuracy 

 of our present dietary standards. 



In this connection it is to be remembered that the food of man- 

 kind may be classified under three heads, viz., proteid or albuminous, 

 such as meat, eggs, casein of milk, gluten of bread and various vege- 



