314 TlMEHRI. 
is carried on sometimes faster, sometimes slower as work 
is done. Remembering how these never ceasing inter- 
changes are always carried on in a watery medium aided 
by oxygen, we shall I think be able readily to grasp the 
principles that are involved in supplying foodstuffs to the 
body. The necessity for food is demonstrated by the 
fa6l that under usual conditions man dies in about 
8 to 10 days, if deprived of all ordinary foodstuffs. From 
time to time fasting men and others have existed for 
longer periods but this does not invalidate the general 
rule. Animals deprived of food die when they have lost 
40 per cent of their original body weights ; they gradually 
emaciate, the fat going first and the last phenomenon 
being a considerable fall in the temperature of the body. 
Man, from the anatomical structure and arrangement 
of his teeth and digestive organs, is evidently best fitted 
to live on a mixed diet, occupying in this matter a posi- 
tion between the carnivora on the one hand and the 
pure herbivora on the other. We know also from 
practical experience that a good mixed diet produces the 
finest races of men — and in this colony the lesson is 
pointed in the marked improvement to be seen in the 
physical condition ot the Creole Coolie, a mixed diet eater, 
over his father the immigrant Coolie, a rice eater. From 
careful observation and analysis it has been found that an 
adult doing moderate work wastes in grammes per day — 
Water ... ... 2818- 
Carbon ... ... ... ... 20 v 2 
Hydrogen ... ... ... 6*3 
Nitrogen ... ... ... i8'8 
Oxygen ... ... ... ... 681-45 
Salts ... ... ... ... 3*2 
