O'SHEA — ASPECTS OF MENTAL ECONOMY. 151 



Dr. Lyon Playfair, the well known English scientist, prose- 

 cuted a series of official investigations for several years on the 

 subject of military rations in England, Erance, Prussia, and 

 Austria. He found that in order to obtain the right amount 

 of albuminous matter it would be necessary to consume weekly : 



Price (about) 



s. d. 



147 ounces of butchers meat 6 1 



or 93 ounces of cheese 3 



or 341 ounces of ordinary white bread 2 8 



or 175 ounces of oatmeal 1 



or 127 ounces of dried peas 1 2 



In order to obtain the necessary proportion of dynamic or 

 caloric-forming substance, it would be necessary to consume 

 weekly : 



Price (about) 

 s. d. 



416 ounces of butcher's meat i7 4 



or 224 ounces of cheese 7 ° 



or 298 ounces of ordinary bread 2 



or 616 ounces of potatoes 2 9 



or 221 ounces of dried peas 1 10 



or 183 ounces of oatmeal 1 ° 



These figures, with others given on preceding pages, show 

 conclusively that meat is not an economical food from which to 

 obtain the energy required for either mental or physical labor. 



Herbert Spencer, when considering some years ago the advis- 

 ability of living more largely upon a vegetable diet, 1 complained 

 that it was impossible to get the requisite amount of albumen 

 without too much energy being expended in digestion. This 

 objection is assuredly an important one. It has already been 

 said that to overburden the system wi,th innutritious, indigesti- 

 ble and largely waste materials results in a limitation of its 

 efficiency ; and when the albuminoids cannot be easily obtained 

 in peas, beans, grains, and nuts the additional expense for meat 

 in student dietaries is certainly justified. But I maintain what 

 has already been urged, that right cooking and the freer use of 

 pulse and nut foods and grains, as cereals and breads, rich in 



1 Education, p. 240. 



