170 THE PROTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION 



3. Causes of rejection among Europeans and Bengalis : 



Of 1,799 pure Europeans, 8 per cent, loaded and 6 per cent, declined 



= 14 per cent. 

 Of 335 India-born Europeans, 8-95 per cent, loaded and 11-94 per cent. 



declined = 20-89 per cent. 

 Of 317 Eurasians, 7-88 per cent, loaded and 15-45 per cent, declined 



= 23-33 percent. 

 Of 3,483 Bengalis, 8-38 per cent, loaded and 16-53 per cent, declined 



= 24-91 per cent. 



The value of these figures from our standpoint is not so much 

 that they afford a basis of comparison of the Bengali with the 

 European the European in India is generally a selected in- 

 dividual who has been passed as medically fit before leaving 

 England their interest really lies in the comparative informa- 

 tion they afford on the physique, resistance to disease, and general 

 well-being of the classes of Bengalis who are able to provide 

 themselves with a liberal protein dietary, as contrasted with the 

 conditions that obtain in the great mass of the population living 

 at the level of nitrogenous interchange which Chittenden zc 

 strongly advocates as the optimum. 



Dr. Caddy's figures bear out in a remarkable manner the 

 statement made by us years ago, that the average Eurasian, 

 unless following European customs and ideas on diet, was 

 physically very little superior to the vegetarian Bengali, so that, 

 whatever initial superiority his share of European blood may have 

 conferred on him, it becomes entirely lost as a result of existence 

 on diets similar to the native inhabitants, diets which are gener- 

 ally deficient in assimilable protein. The effects of a rational 

 diet supplying about the European standard of protein material 

 were strikingly brought out in our analysis of the evidence 

 afforded by the observations on the physique of Bengali and 

 Eurasian students under Heading 2 of this chapter. 



The same effects have been observed in the development 

 shown by Anglo-Indian and Eurasian students in residence for 



