140 THE PROTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION 



and states that their sociological condition and commercial 

 enterprise are on a par with their diet. Yet, when these people 

 are fed on a higher protein plane, their productive power increases 

 markedly. 



All the successful races have habitually consumed protein far 

 in excess of the amount Chittenden believes sufficient, whereas 

 those who have adhered to a low protein standard have not pro- 

 gressed physically, mentally, or morally. The poorer races of 

 India and the tropics illustrate this truth, and show that the 

 conquering races and nations are all high protein feeders. 

 Chittenden would have us believe that they are high protein 

 feeders because they are conquerors, but the facts do not bear 

 out his contention. 



We shall now consider briefly the knowledge gained on this 

 subject from experimental work done on animals, reserving for 

 the following chapters the more recent observations and investi- 

 gations made on some of the different tribes and races of India. 



EXPERIMENTS ON ANIMALS. 



Numerous studies have been made on the effects of decreasing 

 the protein element in the food of different animals. 



Munk, Rosenheim, Hagemann, and Jagerroos, have made 

 investigations bearing on the question of the reduction of the 

 protein in the diet of dogs. Rosenheim and Munk obtained bad 

 results when the protein element was decreased to 2 grammes of 

 protein per kilo of body weight ; the animals suffered from 

 digestive troubles, such as vomiting and loss of appetite. They 

 showed very defective absorption of food, and after a few months 

 died in an apathetic condition. 



Jagerroos, taking special precautions, was able to keep two 

 bitches alive for six and a half months on an intake of less than 

 2 grammes of protein per kilo of body weight. Both these dogs 

 died rapidly, not, as Jagerroos states, from the results of protein 

 starvation and inanition, but from an acute infection contracted 

 after the premature delivery of one of them : in all probability 

 due to a lowered resistance to infection from the ill- effects of 

 poor feeding. 



Chittenden, in a report on experiments completed on six dogs, 

 traverses the results reported by previous investigators, and 

 states that they were not due to the effects of low protein, or 

 to a diminished consumption of non-nitrogenous food, but are 



