160 THE PROTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION 



stituents as haemoglobin and floating proteins of the plasma, 

 combined with a lower scale of blood-pressure. 



All these factors react not only on the muscular tissues, but 

 affect every tissue of the body, and particularly the delicate 

 mechanism of the central nervous system. 



Mosso's work has taught us that fatigue is much more inti- 

 mately associated with changes in the central nervous system 

 than with mere fatigue of muscle substance, due either to accu- 

 mulation of waste-products or the consumption of the reserve 

 of energy-producing material. 



It would therefore appear that, in a condition in which the 

 metabolic chemical changes of the central nervous system are 

 kept continually at a low level as in the Bengali fatigue will 

 be more easily and readily produced. Such is indeed in accord 

 with our everyday experience, and such we believe to be an 

 important factor in the causation of the lack of energy and vigour 

 which is a characteristic of the race. 



2. The Evidence afforded by a Study of the Physical Development 

 of Bengali and Eurasian Students living under the Same 

 Conditions, but on Different Dietaries. 



One of the large colleges in Calcutta kept a carefully tabulated 

 record for over twenty years of certain data concerning each 

 of its students Bengali or Eurasian. The points observed were 

 the age, weight, chest-girth, and height, which were noted 

 every year for each student while he was a member of the in- 

 stitution. As a rule the students remained four years, but the 

 data for the fourth year being defective, only three years are 

 taken into consideration. 



The dietaries partaken of by the two classes of students were 

 also available. The Bengali and Eurasian lived under the same 

 conditions, did the same work, and, as far as it is possible to 

 have it, everything connected with the two classes was strictly 

 comparable. The only difference between them may be summed 

 up in two words race and diet. 



With regard to race, the term Eurasian in the present con- 

 nection is meant to apply to all degrees of admixture from the 

 pure native Christian to the practically pure white of European 

 parentage. The great majority were considerably more native 

 than European. As we have already pointed out, the average 



