Dietaries and Rations. 21 



ratio is i : 7 or even i : 8 has been adopted, in particular cases, 

 with satisfactory results. It may be remarked that the total 

 weight of pulse, cereal and added oil will vary, according to the 

 richness of the pulse and cereal employed, so that in ration B, 

 for instance, it may amount to no more than 20 ounces or it may 

 rise to 22. No allowance has been made for the slight increase 

 in the quantities of nutrients caused by the additions of fresh 

 vegetables or of fruits to the dietaries, but it must be remembered 

 that most of these products contain very large amounts of 

 water, often 90 per cent., or even more. No notice is here 

 taken of the question of condiments, nor of the desirability 

 of varying from time to time the materials of the diet as far 

 as practicable. 



The two tables which follow represent in ounces and decimals 

 of an ounce the amounts of albuminoids and of total starch (that 

 is, of starch, plus the oil present converted into its starch- 

 equivalent) in the stated numbers of ounces of various kinds 

 of pulse and of cereal-grains. In constructing actual rations 

 from these tables we must recollect that for dietary A, about 

 12 to 14 ounces of food-stuffs are needed; for dietary B, 

 about 20 to 23 ounces; and for dietary C, about 21 to 25 

 ounces. The working of the tables may be gathered from 

 the examples which follow them ; of course approximations 

 only can be reached. Reference must be made to the fuller 

 analyses given under the heads of the several pulses, 

 cereals, etc., when it is necessary to learn how much oil 

 is naturally present in these food-materials ; it will then 

 be found that ghi, or some kind of expressed vegetable 

 oil (such as sesamum, til, or mustard) must, in the majority of 

 cases, be added in order to supplement the deficiency of this 

 constituent. This addition of oil involves the derangement of 

 the nutrient-ratio (that is, it lowers the proportion of albu- 

 minoids to carbonaceous nutrients) in any mixture of pulse and 

 cereals, and therefore necessitates the withdrawal of a part of 

 the cereal and the augmentation of the pulse. True, this change 

 causes a reduction of the amount of oil already present in 



