HEALTH AND DISEASE 329 



In fact, the recent researches of such men as Price and Sir Albert How- 

 ard, as well as the studies of some physical anthropologists, tend strongly 

 to the conclusion that man frequently has been least well-nourished where 

 and when his food supply has been most ample. The peoples who live at 

 the lowest economic level — primitive hunters and fishermen — show the 

 fewest evidences of constitutional disease and the physical features of evo- 

 lutionary degeneration, except when they come into contact with civiliza- 

 tion. Pastoral peoples, too, on the next highest level, show relative free- 

 dom from dental decay and other degenerative conditions. 



Food is so scarce with these primitive hunters and shepherds that they 

 eat all that is available; nothing goes to waste. They cannot aflrord, like 

 peoples on a higher economic and cultural plane, to eat only the muscles 

 of an animal and scorn the viscera, the internal organs. And as the viscera 

 are especially rich in the minerals and vitamins required by health, the 

 savage is likely to be healthier than men on higher cultural planes. 



It is when man moves upward to an artificial existence, when he do- 

 mesticates plants and practices agriculture, that physical degeneration be- 

 gins to set in — dental caries, diseases of the gums, skeletal weakness, 

 arthritis, and other kinds of chronic constitutional ailments, frequency 

 of acute infections, and other diseases directly and indirectly referable 

 to dietary deficiency. And when life becomes urban and industrial, then 

 physical degeneration becomes appalling. Civilized man, with a plentiful 

 supply of food, is able to pick and choose. Lacking the instinct of the lower 

 animal, and the intuition and tribal lore of the primitive man, he all too fre- 

 quently chooses what isn't good for him. 



A strict regard for the facts, however, demands the noting of an excep- 

 tion to the generalization developed in the preceding three paragraphs. 

 The health of some primitive peoples within the zone extending about 700 

 miles on either side of the equator, for example, is far from enviable. It is 

 within this zone that the habitual practice of cannibalism is largely con- 

 fined today. 



In this region high temperatures, accelerating chemical reactions, and 

 torrential rains, exerting both chemical and physical action, carry the cal- 

 cium and other minerals essential to health down to levels where the plant 

 roots cannot reach them. There is everywhere a definite correlation be- 

 tween minerals and proteins, both because calcium stimulates the nitrify- 

 ing bacteria and because the nitrates, too, are easily soluble and are leached 

 away with the minerals. The result is grave lack of mineral and proteins 

 in the foods available to the natives of this zone. 



Even where cannibalism is practiced as a magical ritual, its basis could 

 be the need of conserving proteins and minerals, for ritual observances 

 usually have their foundations, no matter how obscurely, in practical neces- 

 sity. Cannibalism in the lower animals is known to be due to mineral hunger. 

 Cannibalism is far from universal among savage peoples, which indicates 



