Members of the hill tribes, instead of being lackadaisical, after the manner of the low-protein feeders of the plains, were alert, joyous, vivacious, talkative, and happy, while their children were playful and active, in decided contrast to the poor miserable, pot-bellied appearance of the progeny of the low-protein feeders. Yet the only difference between them consisted in the quantity of protein in their respective diets. The Nepalese Bhutias ate on an average 2 pounds of meat per day, and were big, strong fellows, with calves to their legs, and much in vogue as carriers. An examination of the diet lists of the hill tribes showed an amount of protein from 110 grams to 175 grams per man per day, and as much as 70 per cent. of this might be derived from animal sources, with an allowance of 35 gram of nitrogen per kilo of body-weight, nearly three times that recommended by Chittenden. Besides which they were quite free from dysentery and other intestinal ailments.

This is certainly a fairly strong indictment of the low-protein theory, and one which we cannot afford to disregard, because it does not possess the defects of even a nine months' experiment, but all the force attaching to dietetic habits evolved in a natural manner, although limited by such restrictions as poverty and climate. May the explanation of some of the undoubted insufficiency of the Bengali diet as a satisfactory nutritive agent not reside, less in the quantity of protein absorbed than in the diseases engendered by the bulkiness of the food, diseases attended by the presence of toxins of one kind or another? Although the caloric value of the food was apparently much higher than in Chittenden's experiment, it was immensely reduced, not only by the more rapid evacuation of the bowel contents, but by the conversion of some of the food-stuffs themselves into toxins, which by absorption must have tended to reduce the vitality of the subjects. The instinctive desire for flesh foods may have been actuated by an earnest longing for a change, as a relief from the eternal monotony of rice, dhal, and vegetables.

Chittenden, in his observations on this admirable study of the nutrition of the Bengalis, contends that the results substantiate the view that the race can exist on a dietary of less than half the protein-content usually considered necessary. Its detrimental effect should not be ascribed to the low nitrogen-content, but to the character of the food, the unabsorbability of which was so great that 25.42 per cent, of the total nitrogen reappeared in the faeces. He considers it an excellent example of an ill-balanced ration, containing as it does a much greater abundance of carbohydrate and a much smaller quantity of fat than the Voit standard diet, and presenting an excellent breeding-ground for micro-organismal development and the consequent formation of toxic compounds. He does not attribute the improved physical condition after the substitution of wheat to the greater protein-content of the latter, but suggests that the wheat furnishes something which, added to the other constituents of the diet, increases the efficiency of the whole, as the action of lime-juice in scurvy. He declares that in the nutrition of the body there are many factors, aside from nitrogen and calories, which play a part in determining proper nutritive conditions. He refers to the immense improvement in the health of dogs, which were rapidly breaking down on a given vegetable diet, when a little meat or milk was substituted for a portion of the vegetable matter, without in any way increasing the total amount of available nitrogen. And finally he maintains that under most conditions of life there should be- no difficulty in maintaining a relatively low-nitrogen intake with an adequate fuel value by the use of food-stuffs which are reasonably digestible and available with freedom from excessive waste in the intestine.