Evening star., 1901-02-21

and blood occurs in every one in proportion
TO the work he does and the temperature
OF the air. That being SO unless the supply
OF food be equal to the waste of the bodS
man loses flesh. He becomes what is
| called an autophagist or eater of himself
| Ihere Is consequently decline Of the bod.
ny ana mental powers and not only car
| the individual not work so well. but he Of
fers much less resistance to the attacks OF
| disease.
I Carry this out for some time Take every
| oay Tor a year little less food than is re-
| quired to supply the waste, and you run
yourself down very low. At first you feel
| mere uneasiness and sinking at the stom-
| ach Later on you are always out of sorts
oyspeptlc perhaps sleepiess, You awake un-
refreshed, You become pale and cadaver-
| Gus.
| But even in the earlier stages the man
VINO is underfed is not up to his work, for
the appetite of workman is a certain
measure OF his capacity for work. Incl
dentaiiy 1t may be said that our American
competitors. Of whom we are hearing so
mucn lately, eat once-and-a-half twice
as much as We do. And almost worse than
Delng below his working efficiency Is the
fact that the London young man of the
type indicated Is extremely liable to take
infectious diseases
We may take it as proved that a man
must eat sufficient food If he wants to re-
| main In robust health And though people
vary In this respect, each person has his
minimum (and maximum, tool, beyond
But there is quality as we'll as quantity
The vegetarian and the meat eater have
long Waged war, but no man of common
sense can have two opinions on the ques-
ton. Certain people whose liver, stomach,
pancreas and other organs are out of order.
may thrive on vegetables (pius eggs. milk,
and butter-all animal foods, but for the
great bulk of humanity the mixed diet is
far the BEST though, no doubt, we could
all exist on vegetables alone. The proofs of
this statement are numerous. Spaniards,
Italians and other southern people can do
better work than Hindus and Chinese. and
they eat more animal food. Englishmen
can do better work than Italians and Span
iards, and they eat more meat.
Then, our teeth are a combination of the
cutting or carnivorous, and the grinding or
rather small. and not suited for a large
bulk of vegetables. and our digestive ap-
paratus is mean between that Of the
herbivora ard carnivora, showing that ma
ture intended us for mixed diet.
If we consult the food chemist he tells
us the same.
Our body needs so much fat, so much
Starchy food, and so much nitrogenous or
lean meat food. SO much salts and so much
water. 1t needs. to put the thing in def
mite figures. 300 grains of nitrogen daily
and 500 grains of carbon. If you eat four
pounds Of bread, you would have the 300
grains of nitrogen, but you would have
about 5000 grains of carbon. Thus, after
digesting the latter you would have to get
Fi'l Oh IL, as waste, through the lungs.
If you eat six pounds of lean meat, you
would have the necessary 4,S00 grains of
carbon. but you would have several times
the necessary quantity of nitrogen. and
this superf1uous matter would have to be
got rid of a great labor by the kidneys,
or else 1t would poison you. But If you eat
two pounds of bread and three-quarters of
pound of meat, you would have Just the
ne eded quantity of nitrogen and carbon,
without any excess of either.
Doctors set an example in meat eating.
for the average doctor eats between two
and three times as much meat the aver
age workingman. and only about one-third
as much bread.
This. brings the question back to the bum
and-mi.k young man. He eats insufficient,
and makes up for the deficiency with stim-
ulat ting tea or coffee, which certainly gives
him feeling of having eaten enough but
at the same time plays havoc with his
stomach. his blood, his muscles and his
nerves. But besides eating insufficient
food. he eats wrong food His body wants
meat and fresh vegetables. He gives 1t
bread, pastry and cloying sweet cake. Con-
seouently his face is pale, his muscles fab
by and his brain dull-or. at least, much
duller than it might be. And there IS a
national as we'll as an individual danger
in this state of things For assured!y if
unsuitable dieting continues the meat-eat-
ing Americans and Australians will take
our commercial supremacy away from us.