PROTEIN AND ENERGY REQUIREMENTS 487 



90 to 120 grams. It may be added that Oshima, 12 in an in- 

 teresting but little known paper upon Japanese diet, con- 

 cludes that it is apparently fair to say that the amount of 

 protein " in the food of those classes who live mainly on 

 vegetable material (and these constitute a large part of the 

 population) is not far from 60 grams daily. ' ? This would be 

 less, even if we take in consideration the much smaller 

 average weight of the Japanese, than the above figures re- 

 garded as standard for an individual of seventy kilograms 

 average weight. Doubtless Cohnheim was entirely correct in 

 suggesting that Italian laborers and Chinese coolies do not 

 live on maize, rice and bread primarily because they have any 

 special freedom from requirements or because a hot climate 

 in itself produces a lessened requirement for food (accord- 

 ing to Hans Aron 13 an average man of 50 to 55 kilograms 

 weight in the tropical climate of the Philippines consumes 

 2500 to 2600 calories, not less therefore than an individual 

 of equal weight in temperate climates), but simply because, 

 having especially heavy labor to perform, they eat a corre- 

 spondingly large amount ; and the result is that they obtain 

 the necessary amounts of protein from the large quantities 

 of food ingested even if it be poor in protein. For hard- 

 working country-people, therefore, a preponderating vege- 

 tarian diet is possible. For persons with a predominatingly 

 sitting or standing habit of life Cohnheim would hold this 

 to be a mistake, however, and he would not regard the crav- 

 ing of the industrial worker for a full meat diet as nothing 

 more than a "sensual craving " (as many concerned with 

 public welfare, belonging to the ruling classes, are disposed 

 to look upon it) , but an entirely proper demand based upon 

 physiological reasons. This shows that the deplorable op- 

 position to the importation of cheap foreign meat is doubly 

 objectionable, and, too, more fortunately, as entirely without 



"Oshima, cited by L. Mendel, Ergebn. d. Physiol., 11, 485, 1911. 

 13 H. Aron (Manila), Philippine Jour, of Science, 4, 195, 1909, cited in 

 Biochem. Centralbl., 1909. 



