28 EFFECT OF DIET ON THE ALBINO RAT 



ability for muscular work. The mental ability was not tested, but one 

 would judge from their appearance and alertness that they would far 

 surpass the vegetarians in this respect. 



A perusal of the literature of this subject convinces one of the fact 

 that the results of the experiments on the rat can be applied to other 

 animals, including man. 



Jafifa,^ in his investigations on a family of fruitarians, says that 

 the youngest child which had lived from infancy on nuts and fruit "was 

 certainly undeveloped. Her bones were very small, although she had 

 no tendency toward rhachitis. She looked fully two years younger 

 than she was." The diet was not satisfying and the craving for other 

 foods was occasionally satisfied by eating them. All the family were 

 below size. 



Chittenden'^ fed dogs on vegetable foods and animal fat with dis- 

 astrous result. In referring to this he says : " This is by no means 

 an exceptional case, but we can cite many examples of like results 

 where the animals when restricted to a purely vegetable diet, such as 

 bread, pea-soup, bean-soup, etc., re-enforced by an animal fat, quickly 

 passed from a condition of health into a state of utter wretchedness, 

 with serious gastro-intestinal disturbance." 



Caspari,^ in studying the effect of a vegetarian diet on man, found 

 that he could not maintain his body weight, but lost 13 K during the 

 experiment. Milk and butter had to be added. In another person 

 he found that he could maintain his weight on a vegetable diet. He 

 was, however, very thin, and the amount of protein in the faeces was 

 large. These experiments lasted for only a short time. 



Langworthy,* in discussing food and diet in the United States, 

 says: "In general, the food habits of the human race today are an 

 expression of the thousands of years of experience in which man has 

 sought to bring himself into harmony with his environment, and food 

 habits have been determined, as regards materials selected, by avail- 

 able supplies, man being by nature omnivorous." Man likes variety. 

 People of the United States are well nourished compared with other 

 races. He further says: "The acknowledged energy and achievements 

 of the American people, together with their general good health and 

 physical well-being, certainly indicate that we have in the main used 

 our food resources advantageously." 



In regard to the digestibility of animal and vegetable foods, we 

 find investigators pretty closely agreeing in their results. Albu,^" in 

 metabolism experiments on a vegetarian, found that only 6^% of the 

 protein and 65% of the fat of this food was digested. Snyder," in 



