RATIONS 119 



each other, and thus approximate to the chemical ideal. 

 The appropriateness of coml)ining 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 

 "pork 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 ma}' ])e desirable for us to depend mainly upon 

 animal food for our nitrogenous materials and carl)onaceous 

 reserve, it is to vegetable foods that we must look to supply 



