94 



THE PKOTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION 



By contrasting the quantities of nutritive materials available 

 for a Bengali and European infant of six months of age, these 

 differences are clearly brought out : 



From careful observations on the influence of the mother's 

 diet on the composition of her milk, it was found that fat is the 

 only ingredient of the milk on which diet produces any effect. 

 Baumm and Illner record a rise of 1 per cent, with a highly 

 nitrogenous and with a very abundant mixed dietary ; whereas 

 an abundant supply of carbohydrates has no influence on the 

 amount of fat, and an increased amount of fat eaten seems to 

 diminish rather than increase the amount of cream in the milk. 

 Observations on cows fed on a highly nitrogenous bean diet, 

 which produces milk greater in quantity and richer in quality 

 than any other diet, would afford strong evidence of the impor- 

 tance of the protein element in the diet of the mother in in- 

 fluencing the chemical composition of her milk. 



The fact that the dietary of the Bengali is very poor in protein 

 and fat, whilst comparatively rich in carbohydrates, in all proba- 

 bility is sufficient to account for the differences met with in 

 the milk of the Bengali when contrasted with that of European 

 women. 



The importance of an adequate supply of nutritive materials 

 in the food of the infant has never been called in question by even 

 the most rabid advocates of the superior merits of a low protein 

 dietary. It may therefore be accepted that the lower quantities 

 of the several constituents available in the case of Bengali 

 children will tend to be accompanied by a lesser body weight 

 and a slower rate of growth. This state of affairs, acting con- 



