The Philippine Journal of Science 



0.5 head oni< 

 14.5 chupas : 

 0.75 chupa salt, native. 

 0.75 chupa sugar, brown. 

 Vegetables and fresh fruits when available. 



The above issues represent an average per capita issued for 

 general ration. Chocolate, etc., are issued monthly, and milk 

 is consumed in hospitals and by young children. This standard 

 ration might be altered by actual circumstances and substituted 

 by the equivalent amount of other food, whenever available, 

 and at the discretion of the chief of the colony. As a matter 

 of fact, the fish supply last year was so irregular that a daily 

 average of only about 100 grams per person was given to 

 between 4,000 and 5,000 lepers. 



I have been unable to find any records in medical literature 

 of previous feeding work done in leprosy cases, so that the plan 

 of the diets was based on the following theories : 



Since there is a leprotic fever in connection with the disease, 

 also phthisis, and since in all fevers the metabolic processes are 

 increased while at the same time the power of assimilation is 

 diminished, and there is a burning up of body proteins as well 

 as fats, I decided in favor of a high-calorie diet. 



Honeij has shown that there is a definite absorption of bone 

 salts in leprosy, and experimental work indicates that in leprosy 

 the organism exhibits a tendency to retain calcium and mag- 

 nesium, whether the patient is maintained upon a diet containing 

 little or much of these elements; the more advanced the patho- 

 logical condition, the more evident does this tendency to reten- 

 tion become. 



It is therefore conceivable that under dietary conditions in 

 which calcium is not particularly abundant, the lack of this 

 element may play a material part in the rapidity of the progress 

 of disease, (l) 



In view of this work, and the recent work on experimental 

 rickets, which shows the remarkable influence of certain sub- 

 stances present in cod-liver oil and also in green vegetables in 

 stimulating the deposition of calcium, I decided in favor of an 

 adequate supply of fresh vegetables and fruits. These would 

 serve the additional purpose of increasing the amount of vitam- 

 ines and of mineral matter. (2, 3) 



To supplement the insufficient fish ration with a cheap avail- 

 able protein, I suggested the use of mungo, Phaseolus aureus 

 Roxburgh, a bean which is abundant in the Islands. Previous 



