THE PROTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION 



At present it will be sufficient to point out the close similarity 

 that exists between the quantity Chittenden has found amply 

 sufficient to meet all the protein needs of the body and the average 

 level of nitrogenous interchange in Bengalis. 



Study 6. An inquiry was made into the dietaries of the 

 aboriginal tribes of Chota Nagpur in Bengal. The facts obtained 

 go far to corroborate the finding of Dr. Harry Campbell as to 

 the mixed form of alimentation shown by those races who have 

 not yet reached the stage of cibiculture. 



Some of these tribes have begun to cultivate the ground and 

 raise crops ; some, on the other hand, live on what they can obtain 

 without agriculture. The more highly civilized and Hinduized, 

 such as the Pators and Sawanis, do not eat cow, buffalo, or pig ; 

 the Mundas and Uraons of Dravidian extraction eat all kinds 

 of flesh, including rats, snakes, insects, jackals, pigs, lizards, etc. 

 in fact, anything they can catch. 



The Pators and Sawanis eat all other kinds of flesh, except 

 that forbidden by the Hindu religion, and are particularly fond 

 of goat. The Sawanis do not possess any land to rear goats, 

 so that they have developed into a caste of professional thieves, 

 the principal thing stolen by them being goats, which they 

 promptly eat. 



As the Mundas practically never milk their cows, infants 

 who lose their mothers have a very poor chance of surviving. 



The Todas, a pastoral tribe in the Nilghiri Hills of Southern 

 India, are of more than ordinary interest from a dietetic stand- 

 point. They are totally unacquainted with vegetable food, 

 and live entirely on milk and buffalo meat or other animals that 

 they can capture. They know nothing of salt, and have no 

 desire for it. In this respect they exhibit the same character- 

 istics as carnivora elsewhere. It has been shown, indeed, to be 

 a universal rule that in all times and in all lands those people 

 who live entirely upon animal food either never have heard of 

 salt, or, if they possess salt, avoid it ; whereas the people whose 

 staple food is vegetable, have the greatest desire for salt, and 

 regard it as an indispensable article of diet.* The Bushmen 

 of South Africa live by the chase, and do not use salt. Similarly, 

 the Kirghese live on meat and milk ; the Bedouins in Arabia 

 live on meat ; the Indians of North America, hunters and fisher- 

 men ; the shepherds of the South American pampas, who live 



* Bunge, " Physiological and Pathological Chemistry " 



