Remarks on DISEASES OF FAULTY NUTRITION
Authors: R. McCarrison
Journal: BMJ (1928)

AFTEIR observiing tliat tIme functions of food were to rebuild tlhe liv-inig tissues, to sipply)eniergy, ail( to pireserve piopei miediumii in wlhiel the biochemical processes of tIme body could take place, Colonel McCarrison said that the failures of foo(d to subser-e tflese functions were brought ahbout in a mium11be-r of ways ; that with whiclh he would dleal was the in)sufficient p)roportion of one or otlher tlhree of the esse-ntial constituients of a diet-nanely, suit- able proteini, inorganie salts, and vitamins.Thle effect of such unsatisfactory foods was a low stalndard phlysical efficienicv ; this prevailed in maniy parts of India, botlh inniman an(d hiis lonmestic aninials; minior tions of ill liealth iiiiglht thlius be produced whlich escape observation, altlhoughl, as Hopkinis lhad said over twenty years ago, tlhey " affect the healtlh of individuals a degree most important to tlhemlselves."In animals sutbnornmal nutrition was shlown by loss of " coniditioni," and by impairiuelnt of fertility aiid of the power to rear their 3-ouing, whliichi were pirone to (lisease and had higlh niortality.If the deficienc-y wvas miiore lpronounced (lisease wiis prodiced in mlani, sluchi as keraionmalacia, niglht-blinidniess, denital carii-ies, polynieuritis, beri-beri, pcllagra, scu rvy, ickets, osteoporosis, slow healiiig of fractllles, steriity, anaemias, some types of goitre, ali- llentary d)ystrophy, gastric atonv, diairlroea constipation, initestinaul stasis, colitis, unlilealthly skin, (lisordered actioni of tIme adrenal glands, stonle in the bl.adder, and vesical irritability.In(lomestie animials likewise there was lonig list of(i.seasecoinditions attributable to this callse; they were rec--ognized by veterinarians to be due to deficienlcy the diet, especially in miiierahl eleients.Theeieelationi of malnutrition to disease hadailaniy aspects, anid pr ogi-ess init.scomprobenesion depended oin the co-op)eration between students of lhuman, aiinimal, plant nllltritionl.The fact that one of time most important means b)y whlichl disease is broutght about, botli in inan -iiid anllinils, wasbvineieasiiig susceptibility to infectiols agents wvas illustrated by tle followinig statement:] During the past two antd ahalfyears livinlg in lly laboratories uiider conditions of perfect beeni on various faulty foods, wlhile the daily average or well-feld stock rats was 865.TIme mortalit.y in (excluding those that wer-e killed on the conclusion experinmemits) was 31.4 per cent., wlhile in the well-fed animals thlai per cAent.Of the former 13.5 per Ilung diseases, chiefly pneumiionia or broncho-pneumonia, whiie cent. of the .latterdiedi fr om the same cause.aniimals 3.3 per cent, dled of acute gastr o-intestinal welIlfed only 0.09 pei ceiit.Durinig the samne previously healthy pigeons were fed on var-ious diets deficient iin the average number of stock or control 331.Of the ill-fed birds 5.8 per cenit.died hear-t disease, pericarditis, while of the well-fed bir ds per cent, from this cause; thiese figuires being exclusive birds whilch developed true beni-beri with its accompanying disease. in the course of my own work I have seen ill-fed monkeys, whlile well-fed momskeys livinig aniimal rooni escaped; and T have seen become infected with Bac/las 5suiipst1/ur and with virUus epithelioma contagiosum, whlile well-fed in immediate vicinity escaped thetse infections.typhioid kills, oi iliimjeetioii, ovr 90 per mice, it kills less thlia 10 per ceint. of well-fed are likewise less resistant to B. pestis cam'iae botulinu.s