THE FOOD OF MANKIND 31 



Animal food, as contrasted with the types of vegetable foods 

 available in those places where precibiculturists at present are to 

 be found, is of far greater nutritive value. From experiments 

 carried out in India, it will be shown that even with cultivated 

 vegetable foodstuffs (barley, millets, etc.) the coefficient of 

 protein absorption rarely reaches 60 per cent., while with animal 

 food it is over 95 per cent. Even in the presimian period of 

 man's evolution there would appear to have been a continuous 

 struggle for the more concentrated forms of protein food, and 

 particularly for the highly nitrogenous animal materials. 



THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF FOOD MATERIALS. 



It is necessary in making a general survey of the food of man- 

 kind to take notice of the gross chemical composition of the 

 different food materials. Analyses of practically every form of 

 food have been made at least for those entering into the dietaries 

 in use in Europe and America. A very complete account of the 

 work done in America will be found in Atwater and Bryant's 

 " Chemical Composition of American Food Materials," Bulletin 

 No. 28, U.S. Department of Agriculture. It will, therefore, only 

 be necessary to refer to the chemical composition of some of the 

 chief foodstuffs of European or American origin, whilst a full 

 account of the composition of those peculiar to India and the 

 tropics generally will be given, as the results hitherto obtained 

 for these substances have not been widely circulated. 



Accepting the ordinary classification of the organic chemical 

 compounds or proximate principles of food materials as being 

 conveniently grouped under the headings of protein, carbo- 

 hydrate, and fats, it may be stated in very general terms, with 

 regard to the protein element, that animal food shows from 20 to 

 25 per cent., legumes of different types almost an equal amount, 

 cereals from 7 to 15 per cent., vegetables from 1 to 3 per cent., 

 fruits about the same as vegetables, and nuts from 10 to 20 per 

 cent. In the case of animal food the percentage of protein varies 

 with the condition of the flesh and with the presence or absence 

 of fat. 



The first table on p. 32 gives the chemical composition of 

 some of the chief European and American foods, the analyses 

 being those of Atwater and Bryant. 



In the second table are given the results of analyses of Indian 

 foodstuffs ; these analyses were made in India from samples of 

 the food materials in use in the gaols of Bengal and the United 



