HEALTH AND POPULATION 573 



scale, the Masai subsisting on little else but meat, blood, and milk, 

 and therefore having a diet high in protein, fats, vitamins A, B, 

 iron and calcium; while the Kikuyu diet, being chiefly vegetable, 

 is high in carbohydrates and low in protein, vitamin A, iron, and 

 calcium. Since the physical development of the Masai is on the 

 average much better than that of the Kikuyu, and the diseases 

 from which they suffer are different, the question is raised of the 

 relation of physical development and resistance to disease to food 

 and nutrition. Much attention was paid to the mineral con- 

 stituents of diet, especially calcium; it was ascertained for instance, 

 that the Kikuyu have considerably less blood calcium than 

 Europeans, and that the routine diets in hospitals and prisons 

 contained only one-third of the assessed calcium requirements. 

 A proper correlation between disease prevalence and diet defici- 

 ency has not yet been reached, but certain diseases seem definitely 

 to show a dependence on unbalanced diet associated with normal 

 blood chemistry. Tropical ulcer, for instance, is invariably 

 associated with an abnormally high inorganic phosphorus content 

 in the blood, although vitamin deficiency is almost certainly an 

 additional cause of the disease. A further point is that the women 

 on the whole have a more varied and better balanced diet than 

 the men. The report stresses throughout that the results achieved 

 are only pointers to the directions in which fuller research should 

 proceed. 



Studies of a somewhat similar nature were made at the same 

 time in Nigeria, particularly by Dr. W. E. McGulloch, formerly 

 dietetics expert in the medical department, working at the Katsina 

 laboratory. His technical papers and notes in the annual reports 

 of medical and health services (especially that for 1932) are 

 highly illuminating. As regards tropical ulcer, McCulloch (1928) 

 suggests that 'dietetic ulcer' would be a better name, since in his 

 view they result from a chronic semi-starvation which facilitates 

 the entrance of any mildly pathogenic organisms. This largely 

 corresponds with the views of Gonnell and Buchanan (1933) 

 based on an investigation in Tanganyika. McCulloch's treatise 

 on the Hausa and town Fulani (1929-30) provides full data on 

 the different foods eaten. Although a large variety of foodstuffs 

 are grown, nearly all the population lives on millet porridge, 



