204 THE PROTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION 



the ordinary animals used as food, except the cow and buffalo. 

 Milk in all its different preparations is very largely consumed 

 even the soldiers, who have to buy it out of their pay, drink up 

 to 2 or 3 pints daily. 



In connection with this the following extract from a letter 

 written by the Adjutant of a Punjab regiment may be quoted : 

 " As to the effects of good food, I may mention that since the 

 regiment left Calcutta, where milk was expensive and of poor 

 quality, and arrived in Dera Ismail Khan, where milk is cheap 

 and good, the men have improved in health and general fitness 

 to a great extent. As milk is the staple article of diet of the 

 Sikh, you can easily understand that when he comes into such 

 favourable circumstances his improvement is noticeable.'" 



It is of interest to note that the Sikhs, like most Hindu tribes, 

 marry their female children before the first menstrual period. 

 It would not, therefore, appear that this custom has so dele- 

 terious an influence on physique as is generally thought. Infant 

 marriage is dying out to some extent amongst the Sikhs and 

 some other Hindu tribes. 



A general idea of the physical development of the young Sikh 

 recruit will be obtained from the following data : 



Average age . . . . . . . . 18 years. 



height . . . . . . . . 67^ inches. 



chest girth 33 J to 35 inches. 



weight 135 to 140 Ibs. 



Taking the dietaries as recorded in Chapter IV., Study No. 7, 

 and the facts given under Jat Sikhs, it may be accepted that the 

 nitrogen metabolism of the Sikh averages from 18 to 20 grammes 

 daily. This, for an average weight of 70 kilos, would mean 

 the metabolism of 0-25 to 0-28 gramme of nitrogen per kilo of 

 body weight, or more than twice the amount Chittenden and 

 the advocates of a low protein dietary consider necessary. The 

 Sikh is perhaps the best known of the martial tribes of the plains 

 of India ; it is therefore of interest to learn something of the 

 dietary on which he lives. The evidence shows that, although 

 Sikhism is composed of representatives of many different castes, 

 some of high standing such as Rajputs, Jats, etc., and some of 

 the despised lower classes of impure descent, such as the Chuhra 

 and Sudra, the effect of the religious and military precepts, 

 combined with a liberal dietary, has been to increase the physique, 

 stamina, and soldierly qualities of those derived from the higher 



