the cause of the bad health of such persons.  There is no reason to think the proteid insufficient, although some persons have said as much.  We have no particulars of the German vegetarians, but the calories appear satisfactory.  In the poor German labourer’s family the calories are too low.  In Dr. T.R.  Allinson’s experiment on a wheatmeal dietary, it will not do to assume that less than 82 grammes of proteid would have been insufficient.  It is probable that a smaller quantity of proteid would have been enough if the fat and carbohydrates had been increased.  The calories are below the usual standard.  In the succeeding example the calories are considerably higher, being not far from the usual standard, yet 54 grammes of proteid sufficed.  It is a common error to place an undue value on the proteids to the extent of overlooking the other constituents.  Dr. Alexander Haig in “Diet and Food,” p. 8, cites the case of a boy aged 10, fed on 2-1/4 pints of milk per day.  The boy lost weight, and Dr. Haig is of opinion that the quantity of milk was very deficient in proteid; more than twice as much being required. 2-1/4 pints of milk contain about 45 grammes of proteid, whereas, according to the usual figures (125 x 6/10) a boy of this age requires 75 g.  This quantity of 45 g. is however, higher, allowing for the boy’s age, than that in several of the dietaries we have given in our table.  A little consideration will show that Dr. Haig has overlooked the serious deficiency of the milk in the other constituents, which accounts for the boy’s loss of weight.  The quantity of milk contains only about 160 g. of total solid matter, whilst 400 g. is the necessary quantity.  Milk is too rich in proteid matter to form, with advantage, the sole food of a human being.  Human milk contains much less in proportion to the other constituents.

The old doctrine enunciated by Justus von Liebig was that proteid matter is the principal source of muscular energy or strength.  He afterwards discovered and acknowledged his error, and the subject has since been thoroughly investigated.  The makers of meat extracts and other foods, either from their own ignorance of modern research or their wish to take advantage of the lack of knowledge and prejudice of the public, call proteid matter alone nourishment.  The carbo-hydrates and fats are equally entitled to be called nourishment.

Our reason for devoting so much space to the consideration of the quantity of proteid matter required, is that in the opinion of many eminent writers it is the crux of vegetarianism.  They have stated that it is impossible to obtain sufficient from vegetable foods alone, without consuming an excessive quantity of carbo-hydrates.  We will summarise the argument as given in Kirke’s Physiology, as edited by Morrant Baker, a standard work, and which is repeated in Furneaux’s “Animal Physiology,” a book which is much used in elementary science schools:  “The daily waste from the system amounts to,