106 CHAPTER XIV, 



These Piedmontese do the hard manual labour 

 in this part of the world : they work as navvies, 

 porters, and so forth. They are, many of them, 

 powerfully made men, and the Nicois are ludicrously 

 afraid of them, for they consider them capable of any 

 act of violence. These rough fellows from the head 

 waters of the Po seem to have a stronger northern 

 element than the milder inhabitants of the valleys 

 that slope towards the Mediterranean ; they are taller 

 of stature, and more given to drinking and fighting : 

 more like our own navvies in fact. 



Polenta may be a very wholesome food when 

 eaten in moderation, but the exclusive use of Maize 

 porridge brings on the dreadful disease known as 

 " Pellagra," which has devastated certain districts of 

 north Italy.* It is said that a little meat cures the 

 Pellagra in its early stages. Goethe, in his 

 " Italienische Reise," foresaw the dangerous effects of 

 this monotonous diet. Is it not possible that a 

 northern meat-eating race, settling in the south, may 

 find themselves unable to endure the change to a 

 purely vegetarian diet ? Possibly these north Italians 

 would suffer equally on an unvaried diet of rice or 

 potatoes. 



Many, if not all, races of men are correlated 

 with certain conditions of food and of temperature : 

 an invading race therefore which has to submit to a 

 change of food or climate may be at so great a 

 disadvantage that the earlier population may reassert 

 itself. Thus the Teutonic element has dwindled 

 away in France. The same thing is happening in 



* Mr. C. Bicknell believes that Pellagra is caused by eating Indian 

 corn which is in bad condition. 



