THE PROTEIN METABOLISM OF MANKIND 75 



when we come to examine the dietary of the dandy carriers of 

 Darjeeling. This man was thirty- three years old, and weighed 

 62-4 kilos. His work was very laborious, and consisted in 

 drawing his ricksha with one man in it anything from fifteen to 

 thirty miles daily. The ricksha men often run long distances 

 with heavy passengers ; a not uncommon run is from Tokyo to 

 Nikko, a distance of sixty-eight miles, which they will cover in 

 fifteen hours. 



This is an example of those classes who are held up by vege- 

 tarians as demonstrating the wonderful results that can be 

 obtained by a simple vegetable diet, as the usual impression 

 conveyed is that these feats of strength and endurance have been 

 performed on a few handfuls of boiled rice. 



The diet of this man supplied 158 grammes of protein and a 

 fuel value of 5,050 calories, and was both abundant and varied. 

 It is particularly worthy of note that 41-1 per cent, of the total 

 protein in the diet was derived from an animal source. Contrary 

 to the popular belief, these jinricksha men spend a comparatively 

 large part of their income on animal food. Tiegel states that 

 they eat large quantities of rice during their working periods, 

 but during the periods of rest they consume large amounts 

 of fish, eggs, beef, and pork. He states that there has been a 

 considerable degree of misrepresentation with regard to the 

 amount of protein in the diet of these people. 



The class in India corresponding to the jinricksha man of 

 Japan was found to live on a protein intake of 175 grammes, of 

 which well over 60 per cent, is derived from an animal source 

 in fact, these men eat from 20 to 30 ounces of beef or mutton 

 daily. 



A comparison of the conditions met with in this Japanese 

 jinricksha man with those found for men engaged in similar work 

 round Darjeeling is of interest. 



The Japanese metabolized 0-35 gramme nitrogen, and expended 

 almost 81 calories per kilo of body weight. He absorbed 137-1 of 

 the 157-6 grammes of protein offered in his diet. 



It was computed that the Indian dandy walla average 

 body weight 60 kilos metabolized 0-35 grammes nitrogen 

 (probably too low an estimate),* and expended about 100 calories 

 per kilo of body weight, the fuel value of his diet working out at 

 over 6,000 calories. 



* Scientific Memoirs, Government of India, No. 37, p. 216. 



