42 M^shei — llie Efect of Diet on Endurance. 



interest of the more rapid transaction of business, with wliich meal- 

 times are regarded as an interference. 



We may therefore at least conclude that whatever the speed of 

 eating which is natural to the human animal, his actual speed under 

 civilized conditions is greater than natural. It is noteworthy also 

 that children are very deliberate in eating their cookies. It is only 

 after they are reproved for keeping their elders waiting that they 

 begin to imitate the latter and bolt their food. Dr. Higgins ' and 

 Dr. Hasse ° have pointed out also some physiological considerations, 

 based on the anatomy of the human throat compared with the 

 tliroats of the carnivores and of " poltophagic" animals, which would 

 indicate that man, to a large extent at least, is naturally a slow-eating 

 animal. Dr. Henrj^ Camj^bell ' has also given some evidence, based 

 on a study of the primitive tribes, to show that chewing is more 

 thorough among uncivilized races, and that the hurry habit to which 

 we are accustomed is largely promoted by the use of prej^ared and 

 ' mushy " foods, — which, in fact, appear to have been devised ex- 

 pressly for the purpose of being quickly swalloAved. 



The evidence, however, on the natural food-habits of man is as yet 

 very meager, and it is only provisionally that we may consider the 

 thorough mastication advocated by Mr. Fletcher as " natural." With 

 this reservation we may say that the experiment here described may 

 be called an experiment in natural eating, or an effort to restore a 

 blunted or lost food-instinct, so that it may serve as a safe guide to 

 the propei" quantities and kinds of foods. If it be asked in Avhat 

 way this natural eating tended to improve endurance, whether it was 

 because of the finer sub-division of food through mastication ; the 

 increased " insalivation " ; the increased flow of " appetite juice " ; 

 the better adaptation of foods to the particular needs of the individual 

 and the moment ; the lessened quantity of food ; the lessened proteid ; 

 or the lessened amount of flesh foods, no satisfactory answer can be 

 given, although, as the previous discussion shows, there is more or 

 less evidence on some of these points. There are certainly some very 

 fascinating problems for the physiologist to solve in regard to fatigue 

 as related to diet. Are the " fatigue poisons " due, for instance, 

 chiefly to the combustion of proteid in excess of the phj^siological 



' See Humaniculture, N. Y. Stokes, 1904. 



5 See A.rchiv fiar Anatomie (Waldeyer's) 1905, p. 321. 



2 " Observations on Mastication," London Lancet, Ji;ly 11, 18, 25 and Aug. 8, 

 1903. Reprinted in Horace Fletcher's The A. B.-Z. of Our Orvn Nutrition, 

 Stokes, 1903. See pp. 126-135. 



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