MEDICAL SURVEY OF THE TOWN OF TAYTAY. 



229 



carbohydrates than the less active individual and therefore takes more 

 rice. The average amount of rice per person is about 700 grams, but 

 for a hard-working man it is somewhat higher, from 850 to 900 grams. 



The fish eaten by the people of Taytay deserves our attention especially 

 as a source of protein, the content of fat in the Philippine fishes being 

 very low, at the most only 1 to 2 per cent; this means that the fish con- 

 tains only one-tenth as much fat as protein. As already mentioned, the 

 amount of fish eaten per person can not be determined with the same 

 accuracy as the amount of rice. The differences between the poorer classes 

 and the richer are here more pronounced, but the possibility must he 

 borne in mind that the richer man spends more money for this food- 

 stuff not because he buys more fish but because he selects a better quality. 

 If we omit the exceedingly high values of both the families marked as 

 wealthy in Table I, we see that from 3 to 10 centavos daily are spent 

 for fish and that a great number of the people, 5 out of 18 (28 per cent), 

 li\e on 3 centavos woith of fish daily. From our standpoint it seems im- 

 portant to find out what quantity of nutritive food stuffs, especially 

 protein, can be purchased daily in the markets of Taytay for this amount 

 of money. 



With this in view, I sent a reliable native boy of Taytay (and not a 

 Filipino student, since the latter might be looked upon as a foreigner and 

 hence get less for his money than a native of the village) to buy 10 or 

 20 centavos worth each of the different kinds of fish in the market. I 

 then took the weight of each sample and determined the edible part and 

 its percentage of nitrogen (Kjeldahl) as a measure of the protein content. 

 Five kinds of fish were selected — tiguiti, as an example of a ver}' cheap 

 fish; dalag, as an example of an expensive -fish; tuyo, a half-dried sardine; 

 dilis, a small dried fish; and liipon, a dried shellfish. 



The following table gives the results of the investigation : 



Table HI. 



Name niirt kind of fish. 



Cost in 

 centavos 

 of 100 

 grams 

 edible 

 material. 



Tir/idti, fresh fish, very cheai>; only eaten by the 

 poorer classes 



Dalag, larger fish regarded as good 



Tuyi), a fish resembling a small sardine not .so 

 highly esteemed 



Dilis, very small dried fish imported from Manila. 



Hipon, small shellfish, partially dried ... 



Amount 



nitrogen 



in 100 



grams 



edible 



material. 



Amount 

 protein 

 in 100 

 grams 

 edible 



material. 



3.6 ! 



•>. .52 

 3.02 



5.0 I 



4.62 



7.0 



10.10 



7.2 



10.68 



1.5. 75 

 18.88 



29. 00 

 63.13 

 66. 55 



