880 METABOLISM. 



The question as to how far this can be done is of importance in regard 

 to the diet in prisons and poorhouses. We give below the following as 

 example of such diets: 



Proteins. Fat. Carbohydrates. Calories. 



Prisoner (not working). . 87 22 305 1667 SCHUSTER. * 



Prisoner (not working) . . 85 30 300 1709 VOIT. 



Man in poorhouse 92 45 332 1985 FORSTER.Z 



Woman in poorhouse. ... 80 49 266 1725 FORSTER. 



The figures given by VOIT are, he says, the lowest reported for a non- 

 working prisoner. He considers the following as the lowest diet for old 

 non-working people: 



Proteins. Fat. Carbohydrates. Calories. 



Men 90 40 350 2200 



Women 80 35 300 1723 



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

 how much of the various foodstuffs must be administered to the body 

 in order to keep it in the proper condition to perform the work required 

 of it. In other cases it may be a question of improving the nutritive 

 condition of the body by properly selected food ; and there also are cases 

 in which it is desired 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, which 

 is readily apparent if we study such dietaries. 



1 See Voit, Unters. der Kost, Munchen, 1877, page 142. See also Hirschfeld, 

 Maly's Jahresber., 30. 



2 Voit, Unters. der Kost, page 186. 



