ON DIET. 519 



The daily feces weighed, when fresh, 333 grms. containing 75 grms. solid 

 matter, and were therefore both bulky and watery. There were present in 

 the feces, fat 7 grms., starch 17 grms., cellulose 9 grms., showing that 30 

 per cent, of the fat, 6 per cent of the starch, and 56 per cent, of the cellu- 

 lose had not been utilized by the body. The subject had really lived on 

 fat, 15 grms., carbohydrates "540 grms. (and cellulose 7 grms.). The feces 

 contained no less than 3.46 nitrogen. If we reckon the whole of this as 

 proteid, this would give 22 grms. of undigested proteid, so that there has 

 been a waste of 41 per cent, of the proteids, leaving only 32 grms. avail- 

 able for real use in the body ; and, indeed, a very small portion only of this 

 nitrogen can be regarded a3 really discharged from the body itself. The 

 total solids of the feces must be reckoned as partly excreta but chiefly un- 

 digested food. If we regard the 75 grms. of solid feces as entirely undi- 

 gested food, the whole solid food available for the body must be reduced 

 from 719 grms. to 644 grms. 



The urine of the day contained 5.33 grms. nitrogen ; this added to the 

 3.46 grms. nitrogen in the feces gives 8.79 grms. nitrogen in the total egesta 

 as compared with the 8.4 grms. nitrogen of the food, indicating a slight 

 loss of nitrogenous material from the body ; but if we suppose that all the 

 nitrogen in the feces was not in the form of undigested food we may neglect 

 this ; and indeed the subject of the observation was in apparently good 

 health and stationary weight. 



Compared with either of the normal diets given in 463, the above diet 

 is striking for the low amount of proteids and of fats and the relative ex- 

 cess 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 laborer of 

 about the same weight as the individual whose data we have just given has 

 been estimated to consist of proteids 102 grms., fat 17 grms., carbohydrates 

 578 grms. 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 grms., fat 93 grms., carbohydrates 968 

 grms. ; but the real nutritive value of such a diet must need very large cor- 

 rection indeed. ( Cf. 465.) 



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

 genous equilibrium and apparently good health on .a modified vegetable 

 diet that is to say, one which included milk and eggs gave the follow- 

 ing : Proteids, 74 grms. ; fat, 58 grms. ; carbohydrates, 490 grms., a diet 

 which differs from the normal diet almost solely in the lesser amount of 

 proteids, one-third of which, by the by, was supplied by the animal mate- 

 rial, eggs and milk. In another instance, nitrogenous equilibrium and 

 fairly good health were secured, for some weeks at all events, on a vege- 

 table diet yielding proteids, about 100 grms. ; fat, 70 grms. ; carbohydrates, 

 400 grms. ; 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 grms. given in the normal diet. But we cannot authoritatively say 

 that such a reduction is necessarily an evil ; for, as we stated above ( 463), 

 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 with- 

 out disadvantage to the body when accompanied by adequate provision of 

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



