24 HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY 



DIFFERENT DIETS. A question has often been 

 asked regarding what has been called " the perfect 

 way in diet." Science speaks here with no uncertain 

 voice regarding the great law which underlies the 

 feeding habits of mankind. Certain persons main- 

 tain that vegetarianism represents the ideal mode of 

 feeding. Some of the advocates of this system 

 subsist on milk, eggs, and cheese, and are not 

 therefore to be regarded as rigid adherents to 

 their doctrine. Others again subsist on vegetable 

 matters entirely, whilst some extreme advocates of 

 vegetarianism reject most starchy articles and 

 advocate a diet which consists largely of nuts. It 

 may be said that there is no perfect way in diet 

 except that which suits the individual and is adapted 

 for maintaining him in perfect health. The great 

 law which underlies nutrition is that man can 

 practically subsist on any kind of food, and that 

 it is climate, or, in other words, his position on the 

 face of the earth which determines the particular 

 articles of diet on which he subsists. Thus in the 

 northern regions of the world meat is largely 

 consumed, and in the far north the diet is almost 

 exclusively of a fatty order, as represented in the 

 habits of the Esquimaux. Here the teaching of 

 nature has again been followed, for fat is a typical 

 heat-producing food, and the inhabitants of the Arctic 

 regions therefore obtain from their diet a source of 

 heat which external nature has largely denied them. 

 In the south, on the other hand, man tends to 

 become more or less a vegetarian and fruit-eater, 

 because the land he inhabits grows fruits in pro- 

 fusion, and vegetables are cheap and easily obtained. 

 In the temperate climates of the earth man becomes 

 a mixed feeder, although certain nations, it is true, 



