176 THE PROTEIN ELEMENT IN NUTRITION 



Rogers states : " This marked difference in the incidence of 

 lung diseases, extending over so many years, must be racial in 

 character, and points to a lesser resisting power to these acute 

 bacterial diseases of the largely vegetarian Hindu, as contrasted 

 with their meat-eating Mohammedan brethren, while Europeans 

 exhibit still greater resistance to these deadly affections." 



3. Rogers has worked out the figures also for another acute 

 bacterial infection viz., acute meningitis. The records of 

 4,800 post-mortem examinations show that 75 per cent, of the 

 fatal cases of acute meningitis occurred in Hindus, against 

 674 per cent, of that race in the total records, while only 17-5 per 

 cent, were Mohammedans against 20-5 of that race ; Europeans 

 are again well below the normal. The figures are : 



4. Cholera is distinctly more fatal in Hindus than in Moham- 

 medans, and is less frequently the cause of death in Eurasians. 

 Europeans, on the other hand, get a very much more severe 

 type of the disease than either natives or Eurasians, and the 

 mortality is proportionately high. 



Rogers' s analysis of these post-mortem records are of very 

 great interest from the standpoint of the effects of diet on the 

 resisting powers of the different races to bacterial infection. 

 Space does not permit us to enter into further details ; the 

 general effect of the evidence is practically what would be 

 expected from the differences in dietetic customs viz., the 

 Hindu exhibits a decidedly poor degree of resistance to infection 

 in comparison with the higher protein-consuming races. This 

 is particularly marked during the frequent outbreaks in India 

 of acute epidemic diseases, such as plague, cholera, smallpox, 

 different septic conditions, etc. 



The Hindu suffers more from gall-stones, much more 

 commonly from cirrhosis of the liver, and all acute inflammatory 

 processes ; on the other hand, owing to his low feeding and its 

 accompanying deficiency in blood-pressure, he dies less often 

 from aneurism and cerebral haemorrhage than the meat-eating 



