158 THE PROTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION 



remarkable when it is recognized that the corpuscular element is 

 quite up to the European standard. The percentage of the 

 floating proteins of the plasma is therefore even lower than 

 would appear from the figures. When we recollect that it is 

 from these floating proteins that the different nitrogenous tissue 

 of the body derive their nutrition, it will be abundantly apparent 

 that these facts have a very important bearing on the sufficiency 

 or otherwise of the diet, and more particularly of the protein 

 element of the diet. 



In this connection it is interesting to note that a sparing 

 diet (1J litres of milk daily) will cause a marked diminution in 

 the amount of serum-albumin and serum-globulin in so short 

 a time as one week.* 



The blood-pressure has been found to be considerably lower 

 in the Bengali than is the case in the European a condition 

 directly affecting the vigour and energy of the two races. The 

 factors in the causation of this lower scale of blood-pressure are, 

 probably, numerous. That difference in climatic conditions is 

 not the chief cause is shown by the fact that Europeans living 

 in the same climate do not exhibit such a low average blood- 

 pressure as met with in the Bengali. As would be expected, 

 the vasomotor system soon becomes acclimatized to the new 

 conditions, and regains its function of maintaining the tonicity 

 of the vessels in the area of peripheral resistance. 



It is more than probable that the force of the heart- beat in 

 the Bengali is less than in Europeans the cardiac muscle, like 

 the ordinary voluntary musculature, not being maintained in 

 such a high state of nutrition as that permitted by the superior 

 nutritive interchanges possible between the lymph and the 

 muscle cells in the European. 



The very great deficiency in the haemoglobin value of the 

 blood in the Bengali is noteworthy. From a large number of 

 observations, both published and unpublished, the average 

 amount of haemoglobin is rarely found to exceed 80 per cent. 

 This means that, instead of each red blood- cell being in possession 

 of its normal amount of haemoglobin, it contains, on the average, 

 only about 75 per cent, of that quantity. This must have a 

 serious deleterious influence on the oxygen-carrying capacity 

 of the blood. 



From the evidence afforded by the chemical composition of 



* Landau, " Osmostischen Druck des Blutes." 



