480 PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY. 



TABLE XXI. 



Proteids. Fat. Carb. Calories. 



Prisoner (not working) 87 22 305 1667 SCHUSTER. 



85 30 300 1709 VOIT. 



Man in poor-house 92 45 332 1985 FORSTER. 



Woman in " 80 49 266 1725 



The figures given by VOIT are, according to him, the lowest fig- 

 ures for a non- working prisoner. He considers the following as 

 the lowest diet for old non-working people : 



Proteids. Fat. Carb. Calories. 



Men 90 40 350 2200 



Women 80 35 300 1733 



In calculating the daily diet it is in most cases sufficient to 

 ascertain how much of the various nutritive bodies must be daily 

 administered to the body to keep it in the proper condition to per- 

 form the work required of it. In other cases it may be required to 

 improve the nutritive condition of the body by properly selected 

 food ; but we also have cases in which we desire to diminish the 

 mass or weight of the body by an insufficient nutrition. This is 

 especially the case in obesity, and all the dietaries proposed for this 

 purpose are chiefly starvation cures. 



The oldest and most generally-known diet cure for corpulency 

 is that of HARVEY, which is ordinarily called the BANTING method. 

 The principle of this cure consists in increasing, as far as possible, 

 the consumption of the accumulated fat of the body by as limited 

 a supply of fat and carbohydrates as possible and a simultaneous 

 increased supply of proteids. A second cure, called EBSTEIN'S 

 cure, is based on the assumption (not correct) that the fat of the 

 food is not accumulated in a body rich in fat, but is completely 

 burnt. In this cure large quantities of fat are therefore allowed in 

 the food, while the quantity of carbohydrates is diminished very 

 much. The third cure, called OERTEI/S cure, is based on the cor- 

 rect view that a certain quantity of carbohydrates has no greater 

 influence in the accumulation of fat than the isodynamic quantities 

 of fat. In this cure, therefore, carbohydrates as well as fat are 

 allowed, provided the total quantity of the same is not so great as 

 to hinder the decrease in the fatty condition. A greatly dimin- 



