CHAP, v.] NUTRITION. 881 



the subject of the observation was in apparently good health and 

 stationary weight. 



Compared with either of the normal diets given in 550 the 

 above diet is striking for the low amount of proteids and of fats 

 and the relative excess of carbohydrates. But though such a diet 

 may be taken as perhaps fairly typical of the daily food of a rigid 

 vegetarian, a much more richly proteid diet may be obtained from 

 sources still strictly vegetable. Thus the diet, entirely vegetable 

 in nature, of an average Japanese labourer of about the same 

 weight as the individual whose data we have just given has been 

 estimated to consist of Proteids 102 grm., Fat 17 grm., Carbohydrates 

 578 grm. And the diet of a Roumanian peasant, living chiefly on 

 beans and maize with the addition of fat of some kind, has been 

 calculated to furnish no less than Proteids 182 grm., Fat 93 grm., 

 Carbohydrates 968 grm. ; but the real nutritive value of such a 

 diet must need very large correction iodeed. Cf. 552. 



The examination of the diet of an individual living with a fair 

 nitrogenous equilibrium and apparently good health on a modified 

 vegetable diet, that is to say one which included milk and eggs, 

 gave the following : Proteids 74 grm., Fat 58 grm., Carbohydrates 

 490 grm., a diet which differs from the normal diet almost solely 

 in the lesser amount of proteids, one-third of which by the bye 

 was supplied by the animal material, eggs and milk. In another 

 instance, nitrogenous equilibrium and fairly good health were 

 secured, for some weeks at all events, on a vegetable diet yielding 

 Proteids about 100 grm., Fats 70 grm., Carbohydrates 400 grm.; but 

 in this nearly the whole of the fat was furnished by the animal 

 product butter, and Liebig's extract was freely used. 



Confining ourselves however to the more strictly vegetarian 

 diet, we may conclude in the first place that, unless the daily food 

 be very large in amount, the proteid element of such a diet falls 

 considerably below the 100 or more grm. given in the normal diet. 

 But we cannot authoritatively say that such a reduction is neces- 

 sarily an evil ; for as we stated above, 550, our knowledge will 

 not at present permit us to make an authoritative exact statement 

 as to the extent to which the proteid may be reduced without 

 disadvantage to the body when accompanied by adequate provision 

 of the other elements of food; and this statement holds good 

 whether the body be undertaking a small or large amount of 

 labour. A second feature of such a diet is the marked reduction 

 of the fat and its replacement by carbohydrates. Although here 

 again we cannot make a distinctly authoritative statement, the 

 evidence which we possess bears clearly in the direction that such 

 a reduction is a marked disadvantage. A third and very charac- 

 teristic feature of the strictly vegetarian diet is the relatively large 

 amount of undigested food lost to the body and discharged as 

 faeces. Even when the diet is scanty, so that the proteid element 

 is low, the amount of fasces relatively to the total food is high ; 



