RATIONS 119 
each other, and thus approximate to the chemical ideal. 
The appropriateness of combining bread and butter we have 
already had occasion to notice. Similarly in ‘‘crackers and 
cheese,’ “‘mush and milk,” “eggs on toast,” “‘meat and 
potatoes,” and many other favorite combinations which will 
readily occur to the reader, we have the animal part poor in 
carbohydrate and rich in fat and proteid, supplemented by 
a vegetable food comparatively poor in these latter ingredi- 
ents, but rich in sugar or starch. Sometimes, indeed, as in 
“‘nork and beans”’ we may have a highly valued combination 
in which not only the carbohydrate but also nearly all the 
proteid is furnished by the vegetable part, the animal por- 
tion being little else than fat; or, as in certain salads, we may 
have the fat represented almost entirely by olive-oil. 
Those who prefer for any reason to abstain entirely from 
meat or other animal food may find adequate substitutes in 
various seed foods of highly nitrogenous composition, as the 
table clearly shows, provided the greater difficulty of digesting 
them does not offset their advantages, as is often the case with 
persons of sedentary habit. The recent military triumphs 
of the Japanese show in a striking way what hard physical 
work can be done on a diet consisting in very large part of rice. 
In most cases, however, it will be found that the vegetable 
foods are of value to us chiefly as contributing carbohydrates, 
and thereby supplying the most marked deficiency of foods 
derived from animals. 
We have now an answer to our question regarding the 
special nutritive value of vegetable as opposed to animal 
foods. Both, as we know, yield us building material and 
fuel; and either the one or the other sort of food is used almost 
or quite exclusively by certain races of mankind, just as by 
herbivorous or carnivorous animals; and, furthermore, we 
have seen that whatever nourishes the animal kingdom, 
including ourselves, must be derived ultimately from plants. 
Nevertheless, the teachings of chemistry and the practice 
of the best-fed and most vigorous peoples agree in showing 
that while it may be desirable for us to depend mainly upon 
animal food for our nitrogenous materials and carbonaceous 
reserve, it is to vegetable foods that we must look to supply 
