NECESSAEY QUANTITY AND VARIETY OF FOOD. 183 



Bread 35-300 oz. (1,000 grammes). 



Meat (without bones) 10-088 oz. (286 grammes). 



45-388 oz. (1,286 grammes). 



Nitrogenized substances. Carbon. 



Bread contains 2-469 oz. (70-00 grammes) and 10-582 oz. (300-00 grammes). 



Meat contains . . . . 2-125 oz. (60-26 grammes) and 1-109 oz. (31-46 grammes). 



4-594 oz. (130-20 grammes) and 11-691 oz. (331-46 grammes). 



This daily ration, which is purely theoretical, is shown by actual observa- 

 tion to be nearly correct. Dalton says : " According to our own observa- 

 tions, a man in full health, taking active exercise in the open air, and re- 

 stricted to a diet of bread, fresh meat, and butter, with water and coffee for 

 drink, consumes the following quantities per day : 



Meat 453 grammes, or about 16 oz. 



Bread 540 " " 19 oz. 



Butter or fat 100 " " 3-5 oz. 



Water 1,530 " " 54 oz. 



Bearing in mind the great variations in the nutritive demands of the sys- 

 tem in different persons, it may be stated, in general terms, that in an adult 

 male, ten to twelve ounces (282 to 340 grammes) of carbon and four to five 

 ounces (113 to 142 grammes) of nitrogenized matter, estimated dry, are dis- 

 charged from the organism and must be replaced by the ingesta ; and this 

 demands a daily consumption of between two and three pounds (907 and 

 1,361 grammes) of solid food, the quantity of food depending, of course, 

 greatly on its proportion of solid, nutritive constituents. 



It is undoubtedly true that the daily ration has frequently been dimin- 

 ished considerably below the physiological standard, in charitable institutions, 

 prisons etc. ; but when there is complete inactivity of body and mind, this 

 produces no other effect than that of slightly diminishing the weight and 

 strength. The system then becomes reduced without any actual disease, and 

 there is simply a diminished capacity for labor ; but in the alimentation of 

 large bodies of men subjected to exposure and frequently called upon to per- 

 form severe labor, the question of food is of great importance, and the men 

 collectively are like a powerful machine in which a certain quantity of ma- 

 terial must be furnished in order to produce the required amount of force. 

 This important physiological fact is strikingly exemplified in armies ; arid 

 the history of the world presents few examples of warlike operations in which 

 the efficiency of the men has not been impaired by insufficient food. 



The influence of diet upon the capacity for labor was well illustrated by a 

 comparison of the amount of work accomplished by English and French 

 laborers, in 1841, on a railway from Paris to Rouen. The French laborers 

 engaged on this work were able at first to perform only about two-thirds of 

 the labor accomplished by the English. It was suspected that this was due 

 to the more substantial diet of the English, which proved to be the fact ; 

 for when the French laborers were subjected to a similar regimen, they 

 were able to accomplish an equal amount of work. In all observations of 



