94 



PHYSIOLOGY 



TABLE II. Continued. 



CHAP. 



On the ground of these statistical data Tigerstedt comes to 

 the conclusion that a daily diet with an available energy value 

 below 2000 calories must be considered insufficient for a workman. 

 He does not, however, deny that there are a number of observations 

 upon individuals who were able to work on a much smaller diet, 

 but these observations were of too brief a duration and were 

 made on too small a number of cases to prove that such a diet, 

 falling below that fixed by Voit as the average, was sufficient to 

 maintain a satisfactory and lasting state of nutrition. 



II. The average diet, based upon the above statistics collected 

 by Voit, Atwater, and Tigerstedt, was generally accepted by 

 physiologists, hygienists, doctors, and economists until a few years 

 ago. Further consideration shows that the value of these data 

 consists simply in a pure statement of facts, from which it is not 

 strictly correct to deduce the physiological laws of nutrition under 

 the varying need of food, the basis of the physical, intellectual, 

 and moral well-being of nations. The data give us an idea of the 

 composition, quantity, and total energy value of the articles of food 

 selected freely and consumed by the Europeans and the Americans 

 included in the scope of the inquiry, but fail to prove that 

 their dietary represents the ideal, the one best adapted to maintain 

 permanently the condition of nutrition and energy most advan- 

 tageous to the human economy. If it be true that animals living 

 under natural conditions are guided by instinct in the selection of 

 food, the same cannot be said of civilised races, in whom primitive 

 instinct has not free play, but has been forced into the background 

 by appetites derived from the most highly developed psychical 



