

CHAP, v.] NUTRITION. 665 



The daily diet consisted on the average of 719 grm. solid 

 matter and 1084 grm. water. It contained 



Proteids 54 grm. containing 8-4 N. 



Fats 22 



Carbohydrates 557 (about J sugar and l starch) 



(Cellulose) 16 



The daily fseces weighed, when fresh, 333 grm. containing 

 75 grm. solid matter, and were therefore both bulky and 

 watery. There were present in the faeces fat 7 grm., starch 

 17 grm. and cellulose 9 grm. shewing that 30 p.c. of the fat, 

 6 p.c. of the starch and 56 p.c. of the cellulose had not been 

 utilized by the body. The subject had really lived on fat 

 15 grm., carbohydrates 540 grm. (and cellulose 7 grm.). The 

 fseces contained no less than 3-46 nitrogen. If we reckon the 

 whole of this as proteid, this would give 22 grm. of undigested 

 proteid, so that there had been a waste of 41 p.c. of the pro- 

 teids, leaving only 32 grm. available for real use in the body; 

 and indeed a very small portion only of this nitrogen can be 

 regarded as really discharged from the body itself. The total 

 solids of the fasces must be reckoned as partly excreta but 

 chiefly undigested food. If we regard the 75 grm. of solid 

 fseces as entirely undigested food, the whole solid food avail- 

 able for the body must be reduced from 701 grm. to 644 grm. 



The urine of the day contained 5-33 grm. nitrogen; this 

 added to the 3*46 grm. nitrogen in the fseces gives 8-79 grm. 

 nitrogen in the total egesta as compared with the 8-4 grm. 

 nitrogen of the food, indicating a slight loss of nitrogenous 

 material from the body; but if we suppose that all the nitro- 

 gen in the fseces 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 440 

 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 indeed. Cf. 442. 



