82 'THE PKOTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION 



from students, servants, and assistants, the average total protein 

 intake works out 55 grammes per man daily ; of this 25 per cent, 

 reappears in the faeces that is, the faeces contain an average 

 of 1-5 grammes of nitrogen daily. Although this amount is 

 larger than that ordinarily excreted on a European type of 

 mixed dietary, it cannot be considered very excessive ; and, 

 except where the dietary consists of abnormal quantities of rice 

 and dal, this may be accepted as the average amount lost from 

 the total nitrogenous intake of the mass of the population of 

 Bengal. But it is quite otherwise when, in order to conform 

 to the accepted protein standard, as in the gaol diets of Bengal 

 and other parts of India, the mass of vegetable foods is increased 

 to an abnormal extent. Under such circumstances the amount 

 of nitrogen reappearing in the faeces may reach a very high 

 figure. Thus, in the case of four prisoners in Bengal on whom 

 feeding experiments were carried out with a mixed diet, but 

 containing a large proportion of rice and dal, the actual amount 

 of nitrogen in the daily faeces averaged 3-67 grammes,* well over 

 twice the amount of the faecal nitrogen shown by the observa- 

 tions on assistants. Further, when the full gaol diet of a wholly 

 vegetable nature is consumed, the actual amount of nitrogen 

 present in the daily faeces is still greater. In the case of prisoners 

 on Bengal gaol diets, this was found to be from 5-2 grammes ( 

 the diet included a small amount of fish, and all the rice was not 

 consumed to over 6 grammes of nitrogen when the whole diet 

 was eaten. Similar results were obtained for ill-balanced 

 dietaries in the gaols of the United Provinces, as will be found in 

 the published account of the investigations.! 



In considering the dietaries of the masses of India, the food 

 consumption of the gaol population cannot be taken into account, 

 as it bears no relation to the ordinary food of the people either 

 in quantity or quality. The prisoners receive very much larger 

 quantities of the staple foodstuffs, and do not, on the other 

 hand, get either animal food, butter, or milk. The gaol dietaries 

 are absolutely vegetarian in type. It is for this reason that the 

 above rations have been given in detail, in order to show that the 

 dietary of the people in general is not so ill-balanced as Chitten- 

 den believes. In the case of Diets I. and II., which apply to 

 probably 90 per cent, of the population, as absorption of 75 per 



* Scientific Memoirs, Government of India, No. 34, p. 45. 

 f Ibid., No. 37, p. 97. % Ibid., No. 48. 



