LOW PROTEIN DIETARY IN THE TROPICS 151 



labourers and mechanics varies according to their sects and 

 profession. 



" The Gentoos of the lower provinces are a slight-made people. 

 Rice is their chief food. It seems to afford but poor nourishment, 

 for strong, robust men are seldom seen amongst them. Though 

 the people in general are healthy, they rarely attain to any great 

 age, which is in some measure made up to them by early 

 maturity."* 



" Many of the Indians abstain from all kinds of animal food, 

 and the greatest part of them use rice as their common and 

 almost only sustenance. At the close of evening every man eats 

 an inconceivable quantity of rice, and may take after it some kind 

 of soporific drugs . . . the use of opium, which is to warm his 

 blood for action and animate his soul with heroism. It must fill the 

 mind of the European soldier at once with compassion and con- 

 tempt to see a heap of these poor creatures, solely animated by a 

 momentary intoxication, crowded into a breach, and both in their 

 garb and impotent fury resembling a mob of fanatic women."f 



The above extracts give some idea of the opinions of the 

 earlier writers on the physique and the effects of diet on the 

 Indian. It must be remembered, however, that in the period 

 referred to the English had penetrated at no great distance from 

 the coast, and had no knowledge of the splendid fighting material 

 that was to be encountered later as English rule spread over 

 the land. In order to correct the impression that the above 

 picture applies to the people of India in general, one more extract 

 must be given : 



" I am afraid that the belief that the people throughout India 

 live generally on rice is almost as prevalent in England as ever. 

 There could be no more complete delusion. Rice, in the greater 

 part of India, is a luxury of the comparatively rich. It is grown 

 where the climate is hot and damp, or where there are ample 

 means of irrigation. It is only in Lower Bengal, in parts of 

 Madras and Bombay, in Burma, and in districts where the 

 conditions of soil and climate are suitable to its abundant pro- 

 duction, that it forms the ordinary food of the people, or enters 

 to an important extent into the consumption of the poorer 

 classes. Out of the whole of the population of India it is probable 

 that not more than one-fourth live on rice. 



* " Letters from Luke Scraf ton, 1758." Bengal. 



f "An Account of War in India v. the French on the Coast of Corornandel, 

 from 1750 to 1760." Cambridge. 



