188 THE PROTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION 



From a study of the hill- tribes around Darjeeling it is evident 

 that the well-developed and more muscular races are those whose 

 diet is very superior in the amount of absorbable protein it 

 presents. The Bhutia, by far the most capable of these people 

 in those occupations requiring great muscular exertion, attains a 

 nitrogenous metabolism much higher than any other tribe. Just 

 as was the case with the inhabitants of the plains of Bengal, 

 Behar, and Orissa, so with the races in the hills, variations in the 

 level of the average nitrogenous metabolism appear to be the 

 determining factors of the several causes that go to relegate, 

 fix, and maintain the position of a people, tribe, or race in the 

 scale of mankind. The daily nitrogenous interchange of these 

 hill-tribes works out to be 



1. Bhutias : N per Kilo of Body Weight. 



Nepalese Bhutias . . . . . . 0-42 grm. (very highly 



animal diet). 



Tibetan and Bhotan 0-35 grm. 



Sikkim Bhutias 0-25 



2. Nepalese 0-18 to 0-25 grm. 



Contrasted with 



3. Beharis and Eastern Bengalis . . . . 14 to 0-1 6 grm. 



4. Bengalis and Ooriyas (rice diet largely) . . 0-116 to 0-12 grm. 



THE RACES OF THE GANGETIC PLAIN. 



Of all factors other than diet that influence the stature and 

 general physical endowment of the people of India, race or the 

 particular stock from which the tribes originally sprung is of 

 first importance. 



Risley states that race differences play a larger part in the 

 distribution of stature in India than is the case in Europe. The 

 tallest statures are massed in Baluchistan, the Punjab, and 

 Kajputana, and a progressive decline may be traced down the 

 Valley of the Ganges. 



In discussing the effects of diet as exhibited by the inhabitants 

 of the Punjab, United Provinces, Behar, and Bengal, it is of 

 importance to take into account the influence of race, and, by a 

 comparison of tribes from the same stock, to eliminate this 

 factor in the same manner as those laid stress on by Kellogg. 

 This we have done in discussing the people of Bengal, who are all 

 Mongolo-Dravidian in type one of the most distinctive types 

 in India. It occupies the delta of the Ganges and its tributaries, 



