State board of Health. 
317 
ety of food. It therefore becomes a question of great responsibility 
to those who liave the task of providing subsistence for large bodies 
of men that the needed variety should not be overlooked. 
The principle of variety in food has been found to apply also to 
the lower order of animals. Burdach tells us that rabbits will not 
bear a restricted diet. Three j’^oung rabbits from the same litter 
w’ere experimented on. One, fed on potatoes alone, died on the 
thirteenth day, and one, fed on barley alone, died in the fourth 
week, while a third was fed on potatoes and barley alternately 
every other day for three weeks and afterwards by the same articles 
given together, and it grew and developed into a healthy, vigorous 
animal. 
The quantity of food necessary for a human being is so variable 
that no rule can apply to all, and any effort in this direction must 
be regarded as a mere approximation. This depends on the habits 
of the individual, on his age and peculiar physical conformation. 
Men who perform great physical labor need more food than those 
who do not, and as a rule it has been observed that persons of a 
lean habit of body eat more than those who are fleshy. In the 
early periods of life also more food is needed in proportion than in 
adult life, because by supplying the natural waste of the body a cer¬ 
tain amount is needed for its growth and development. Then in 
very cold climates a much larger amount of aliment is necessary to 
preserve health than in more temperate localities. Dr. Kane re¬ 
lates that during a winter of intense cold, which he with his men 
spent in the Arctic regions, each man would consume eight eider 
ducks and from three to five pounds of rice per day, besides his 
ordinary sailor’s ration. He further says that from his personal ob¬ 
servation the daily ration of the Esquimau is from twelve to fifteen 
pounds of flesh, one-third of which is fat. He once saw an Esqui¬ 
mau eat at a single meal ten pounds of walrus flesh and blubber. 
A Russian officer tells us that he once saw a man eat at a single 
meal a quantity of rice and butter that weighed twenty pounds. 
The writer remembers a blacksmith whom he knew in early life, 
who was a huge feeder, and whom he once heard remark that he 
had never yet taken sufficient food at a single meal to satisfy his 
appetite. This man was rather spare in flesh, but had a fine devel¬ 
opment, a great capacity for labor, and was endowed with extraor¬ 
dinary physical strength. 
