ALBERT R. MAJVN 
 LIBRARY 
 
 AT 
 
 CORNELL UNrVEKSITY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 QP 141.H14 1906 
 
 Diet and food, considered in relation to 
 
 3 1924 003 162 140 
 
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DIET AND FOOD 
 
DIET AND FOOD 
 
 G;onslC>ere& in relation to Stvengtb anb power 
 of Bn&urance, draining an6 atbletics 
 
 ALEXANDER PAIG, M.A., M.D.Oxon., RR.C.P. 
 
 Physician to the Metropolitan Hospital^ and the Royal Hospital 
 for Children and Women 
 
 AUTHOR OP *'URIC ACID AS A FAOTOE IN THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE" AND OF 
 "UBIC acid: an EPITOME OF THE SUBJECT" 
 
 SIXTH EDITION 
 
 WITH SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 P. BLAKISTON'S SON AND CO. 
 
 1012 WALNUT STREET 
 1906 
 
 {All Bights^Reserued) 
 

 Prvnleil in England 
 
PBEFACE TO SIXTH EDITION. 
 
 The interval which has elapsed since the last 
 edition of this book has served only to deepen 
 my conviction of the. importance, mental and 
 physical, which attaches to the right understand- 
 ing of dietary questions. It is scarcely an exag- 
 geration to say that many matters which agitate 
 the public mind are not worth a thought in com- 
 parison with this subject to which a thought is 
 seldom given. Yet a little consideration should 
 demonstrate that what a man thinks he becomes, 
 and that a science which controls the building of 
 brain-cell and therefore of mind-stuff lies at the 
 root of all the problems of life. For mind is a 
 function of the body, and the body is dependent 
 on the material at its disposal for the purposes 
 of stability and renewal, and though we may 
 not agree with the philosopher who pronounced 
 every sick man to be a scoundrel, it is obvious 
 that each power must be dwarfed or distorted 
 when the instrument of its manifestation is im- 
 paired. On the moral side it becomes increasingly 
 apparent that many perversions and deformities 
 formerly believed to be wilful and deliberate are 
 to be recognised as falling into the domain of the 
 
vi. Preface to the Sixth Edition 
 
 physician, and are as certainly diseases as the 
 broken-down heart or crippled joint. In other 
 words, they are things which may be prevented 
 by human means and the necessary conditions, 
 but are otherwise unavoidable. Doubtless pallia- 
 tives have been and will be tried, but for a cure 
 the world has looked far and wide, whilst, in my 
 opinion, it has been a simpler matter than was 
 supposed, and has lain all the time at our gates. 
 Briefly, experience and experiment strengthen my 
 belief that in adopting the stimulative forms of 
 diet the race entered upon a path which could 
 only lead, as it has done, to the mental and phy- 
 sical diseases which now baffle the scientific man 
 and the moralist alike. Those who have under- 
 stood this subtle degenerative influence and re- 
 traced their steps before it was too late, have found 
 the result of their choice in an accession of 
 health and an equipoise of mind and body which, 
 increased and disseminated throughout the nation, 
 would have more effect than any other measure 
 for its well-being known to me at present. It is 
 impossible to overstate the necessity for this 
 reform, the neglect of which is already visible in 
 many ominous signs, and bids fair later on to 
 menace our very existence. 
 
 7, Brook Street, W. 
 September, 1906. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 In attempting to alter people's diet so as to free 
 them from .the poisonous xanthins and uric acid, I 
 have met with so much ignorance, and its results 
 in prejudice and superstition, that I have been led 
 to write these pages, in the hope of making clearer 
 the position that diet holds in relation to matters 
 of strength and nutrition. 
 
 And I believe I speak no more than the truth 
 when I say that once a clear knowledge o£ the 
 facts is possessed and a workmanlike and useful 
 grasp of the subject attained, it will be i-.o:."^. ;hat 
 in diet lies the key to nine-tenths ' tjc r.,.-.ial 
 and political problems that vex cur ^^0,0!^^^ and 
 time. 
 
 Diet, as at present used, is the product of a 
 vast amount of ignorance ; it is the cause of a 
 hideous waste of time and money ; it produces 
 mental and moral obliquities, destroys health and 
 shortens life, and generally quite fails to fulfil its 
 proper purpose. 
 
 It is my object in the following pages to show 
 that it may be easily made to fulfil its proper 
 
viii. Preface 
 
 purpose, and that with even a partial removal of 
 the ignorance that surrounds it, the waste of time 
 and money may be prevented, and the dangers to 
 life and health averted. 
 
 But after pointing out the possibility I shall leave 
 the facts to speak for themselves, since those will 
 most completely understand them who put them 
 to the test of experience. 
 
 7, Brook Street, W. 
 August, 1898. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter I. 
 Some points in the Physiology of Albumen and Urea . . . . 1 
 
 Chapter II. 
 Physiology and Pathology of Fatigue 31 
 
 Chapter III. 
 Poods available : their Properties and Relative Importance . . 48 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 
 Values of Foods in Albumen and Urea. Quantities required. 
 
 Diet of Training and Athletics . . . . . . . . 64 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Fig. 1. — EfEeots of Fasting and Food on the Excretion of Urea 4 
 
 Fig. 2.— EfEeots of Milk on the Excretion of Urea . . . . 13 
 
 Pig. 3. — EfEeots of Cheese on the Excretion of Urea . . . . 16 
 
 Pig. 4. — EfEects of Sugar on the Excretion of Urea and of Acid 19 
 
 Fig. 5. — EfEeots of an Acid on the Excretion of Urea and of 
 
 Acid 21 
 
 Fig. 6. — Teeth of a Carnivore, a Man, and a Prugivore for 
 
 Comparison . . _^ . . . . . . . 86 
 
 Pig. 7. — Photograph of the Impressions made by the same 
 
 Teeth on a Piece of Modelling Wax . . . . . . 87 
 
DIET AND FOOD. 
 
 CHAPTBE I. 
 
 Some Points in the Physiology of Albumen 
 AND Ueba. 
 
 Health may be defined as a satisfactory condition 
 of nutrition, strength, and power of endurance. 
 
 In considering how such a condition can be 
 produced we shall have to treat of the albumens 
 of food, their sources, characters, digestibility, 
 and the amounts of force and urea derived from 
 their metabolism in the body. 
 
 In far-off times, when man was a more natural 
 and less artificial animal than at present, Nature 
 managed the whole business for him, and be either 
 died or attained an equipoise of health and nutri- 
 tion without knowing how or why. 
 
 But when later on he began to control some 
 of the conditions of nutrition without a thorough 
 comprehension of all their bearings, he here, as 
 in so many other points of contact with Nature, 
 upset her methods without the power of substi- 
 l 
 
2 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER I 
 
 tuting more satisfactory ones and suffered in 
 consequence from many unexpected and terrible 
 results of his rashness. 
 
 As one of these, many men are attempting 
 to carry the diet of youth into middle life and 
 age, and the diet suitable for an active outdoor life 
 into a life of sedentary office work. If they fall 
 into neither of these errors they are generally 
 completely ignorant of the relative value and 
 importance of foods, so that they either starve 
 themselves on vegetables and herbs containing 
 little or no albumen, or, on the other hand, over- 
 feed themselves on concentrated albuminous foods. 
 
 To prevent such mistakes and to substitute 
 a certain amount of scientific precision for the 
 previous rule of thumb methods, is the object of 
 this little book, and we may say as a beginning 
 that the first essential of nutrition is the supply 
 to the blood of sufficient albumen to replace that 
 transformed into urea in the production of force. 
 
 If food is withheld urea goes down and down, 
 and with it falls the power of producing force in 
 active exercise. 
 
 Fig. 1 shows in a curve the hourly excretion of 
 urea in the sixteenth, fifteenth, fourteenth and 
 earlier hours of a fast, no food having been taken 
 since 8.30 p.m. on the previous day. 
 
 We see, then, that in the hour ending at 8 a.m. 
 urea is a little above 13 grains, and it rises in the 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OF ALBUMEN AND UBBA 8 
 
 hour ending at 9 a.m. to a trifle above 14 grains ; 
 this being probably the result of the exercise in- 
 volved in the acts of washing and dressing. 
 
 At 10 it falls, and at 11 is only about 12'5 grains, 
 but at 12 it rises again nearly to 14 grains as the 
 result of some exercise, only to fall more quickly 
 and decidedly to 11 grains at 1 p.m. At 1.5 
 food is taken, at 2 there is a rise, but only a 
 slight rise, to 11'5 grains ; at 3, however, the full 
 effect of the meal begins to be felt and it rises 
 with a bound to 16 '7 grains per hour. The total 
 for the day being little over 400 grains, or 17 
 grains per hour. 
 
 We learn from this figure that the effect of 
 withholding food for sixteen hours is a steady fall 
 of urea (only the latter part of which we see here), 
 from 17 grams or more per hour down to 11, but 
 that this fall is broken from time to time by 
 the effect of exercise, which appears to call out 
 albumen or nitrogen from some reserve store, 
 about which more presently. 
 
 It is also to be observed that with this fall of 
 urea there is a steady corresponding diminution of 
 strength and power of endurance ; that is, of force 
 production, and that with the rise of urea, which 
 at 3 p.m. follows the taking and digestion of food, 
 there is an equally marked rise of general strength 
 and power. 
 
 We thus learn that the excretion of urea is the 
 
4 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER I 
 
 measure o£ the force available, and that its falls 
 and rises accurately register the conditions of the 
 nutrition, strength and endurance of the body. 
 
 ^ 
 
 80A.M 
 
 90 
 
 10-0 
 
 ll'O 
 
 12 NOON 
 
 10 P.M. 
 
 20 
 
 30 
 
 ^'7 
 
 X 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 s: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^16 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 14- 
 13 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 /^ 
 
 r\ 
 
 V 
 
 A 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 12 
 II 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 Y 
 
 
 i 
 
 f 
 
 
 Fig. 1. — Effects of fasting and food on the excretion of urea. 
 
 We know also that this urea is generally obtained 
 from nitrogen in the form of albumen contained 
 in food, that there is a certain amount of stored 
 
PHYStOLOGt OF ALfitJMEN AND UREA 5 
 
 albumen in some of the tissues, and that in pro- 
 longed starvation, nitrogen is further provided by 
 destruction of the tissues themselves, this being 
 accompanied by a definite daily decrease in body 
 weight. 
 
 It will be seen that such loss of body weight is 
 an exact measure of the albumens consumed, and 
 of the urea and force produced from them. 
 
 Therefore, when there is no more albumen avail- 
 able for absorption, no more reserves and no food, 
 urea and force are no longer produced, and life 
 comes to an end. 
 
 From this we may conclude that urea excreted 
 is an exact measure of force produced, and that 
 albumen available is an exact measure of potential 
 force (see also chap. iv.). 
 
 We shall see also (as I have already suggested 
 in " Uric Acid,"' as the result of other researches) 
 that those who believed that strength was obtain- 
 able from food containing no nitrogen, and that 
 urea was therefore not an absolute measure of 
 strength and power, had flaws in their premisses 
 which seriously affected the value of their con- 
 clusion (see p. 37). 
 
 The point is mentioned here because the relation 
 between albumen, urea and force, is the keynote of 
 
 ' "Uric Acid as a Factor in tlie Causation of Disease." 
 Sixth Edition. J. and A. Churchill. London: 1903. Pp. 
 373-379. 
 
6 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER 1 
 
 this volume ; but I shall have much evidence to 
 bring forward on the subject in the following 
 pages. 
 
 Further, by watching my own excretion of urea 
 for many years (see details in "Uric Acid"), 
 and on all kinds of diets, I have come to the 
 conclusion that, given a sufficient amount of albu- 
 minous food, which can be digested and meta- 
 bolised into sufficient urea, I can produce force 
 proportional to that urea, without much regard 
 to the quantities of other non-albuminous foods 
 taken. 
 
 So that while sugar, starch and oil do, under 
 certain conditions which I shall demonstrate pre- 
 sently, affect to a small extent the production of 
 urea and force from albumen, their influence is 
 always indirect, and generally of so little import- 
 ance that in a purely practical work like the present 
 it may be neglected. 
 
 We are now at once met by the question, how 
 much urea and how much albumen are sufficient ; 
 and as most physiologists are agreed that good 
 . strength and nutrition in adult life can be main- 
 tained with an amount of albumen producing about 
 3^ grains of urea per lb. of body weight per day, 
 and as my own researches (see " Uric Acid," p. 834, 
 et seq.) are in substantial agreement with them, 
 I shall adopt this standard without further con- 
 sideration here. 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OP ALBUMEN AND UKEA 7 
 
 It will be found a rough but sufficiently accurate 
 rule that the albumens required to produce any 
 given quantity of urea, can be found in grains by 
 multiplying the grains of urea by 3. 
 
 If, therefore, we take the weight of any in- 
 dividual in pounds (should there be much adipose, 
 tissue either deduct it, or take the body weight 
 before the adipose tissue was added) and multiply 
 this by 3 if life is sedentary, and by 35 if life is 
 active, we get the urea required, and this being 
 again multiplied by 3, the albumens required to 
 produce it. 
 
 Example. — A man weighs 160 lbs., but his active 
 weight twenty years ago before he became stout 
 was only 130 lbs., and he is now sedentary ; there- 
 fore (130 X 3 X 3) = 1,170 ; and 1,170 grains of 
 albumen per day are necessary for his proper 
 nutrition and force production. 
 
 But if such a man leads, or wishes to lead, a 
 decidedly active life, multiply 130 X 3-5 X 3, and 
 1,365 grains of albumen are required each day. 
 
 Old people produce much less urea, say about 
 2 grains per lb. per day : thus an old man might 
 only require 130 X 2 X 3 = 780 grains of albumen 
 and would also, of course, produce less force in 
 proportion ; old people who are strong and active, 
 however, still want 3 to 3'5 grains per lb. per day. 
 
 Children, on the other hand, need much more, 
 and may produce 6-8 and even 10 grains of urea 
 
8 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER I 
 
 per lb. ; therefore a child of 35 lbs. may require 
 3.5 X 10 X 3 = 1,050 grains of albumen daily. 
 
 An interesting instance of this came under notice 
 in the case of a boy, aged 10, admitted into the 
 Eoyal Hospital for Children and Women suffering 
 from albuminuria and having a normal temperature. 
 
 He was put on a diet of milk only and, by 
 accident, he was given 2^ pints, this being an in- 
 sufScient quantity of albumens. 
 
 On this he lost weight to the extent of 7 lbs. in 
 eleven days his weight on admission being 53 lbs. 
 
 Now the albumen in 2;^ pints milk = 590 grs. 
 
 And the albumen in 10 ozs. of his 
 own tissues containing, say, 18 
 per cent. ... ... ... ... = 786 grs. 
 
 1,376 grs. 
 Bo that we get 1,376 grains of albumen as the 
 quantity this boy required each day, and this 
 divided by 3 gives 458 grains of urea, or 8'6 grains 
 per lb. per day on his original weight of 53 lbs. 
 
 This is very interesting, as Nature made up 
 the deficit and told us how much albumen and 
 urea per lb. this boy required. I have often 
 found children of this age excreting urea to about 
 the quantity thus calculated, and younger ones still 
 more per lb. 
 
 As soon as the mistake was discovered the milk 
 was increased, the loss of weight ceased, and the 
 amount lost was slowly regained. 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OP ALBUMEN AND UEBA 9 
 
 Precisely the same results have often been pro- 
 duced in adults, who for one reason or another 
 have starved themselves, and here again the urea 
 excreted would be found to correspond to the 
 albumens swallowed and to the tissues absorbed. 
 
 I may remark that those who starve themselves 
 may feel very bright and well at first, after the 
 usual gastric symptoms of discomfort give way, 
 for they are being nourished on a stimulating 
 flesh diet from their own tissues, and are saving 
 some of the force usually expended on digestion. 
 
 Later on, however, when their reserve of albu- 
 mens has long been used up, and the tissue 
 albumens get low, they discoveu that they have 
 been living on capital which should never have 
 been touched and which it is difficult to replace ; 
 for with all their forces, including that of diges- 
 tion, at a low ebb, it will take a comparatively 
 long time to assimilate sufficient albumens to 
 keep the machine working, as well as to replace 
 lost capital. These considerations sufficiently 
 account for the fact, of which I have seen many 
 instances, that those who put themselves on an 
 unaccustomed diet, often dangerously diminish 
 their allowance of albumens for some time, before 
 they discover that there is anything wrong, and 
 great difficulty is then experienced in getting back 
 to physiological levels. 
 
 Thus while 10 grs. of albumen per lb. of bod 
 
 y 
 
10 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER I 
 
 weight is required for an active life, 9 grs. per lb. 
 is" about the minimum that an adult can continue 
 to take with safety. 
 
 Of course in the treatment of disease, and for a 
 day or two, much smaller quantities may have to 
 be allowed ; but whenever this is necessary there 
 should always be a corresponding reduction in 
 the output of force, or there will be a call on 
 reserves and a loss of weight, which should be 
 avoided if possible. 
 
 I mention this 9 grs. minimum specially, because 
 I find that people who do not take care, get below 
 it for a time, by accident or mere want of atten- 
 tion, and then becoming weak, get easily fatigued. 
 The fatigue destroys appetite and power of diges- 
 tion, and so they go on eating less and less, 
 till some of them get to 7 or even 6 grs. per lb. 
 per day, and are on a downward grade which will 
 take them still lower if the danger is not recognised. 
 
 The best treatment of this condition is to in- 
 crease milk or cheese to make up the 9 grs. per 
 lb., and to give a tonic for a time to improve 
 appetite and digestion till the fire burns up again. 
 
 It is because the fire goes down slowly, and 
 the change often escapes notice till more or less 
 serious signs of debility begin to appear, that it is 
 so necessary to bestow some care at first to ensure 
 the proper quantities of albumen being taken by 
 those who are changing diets. 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OF ALBUMEN AND UREA 1]. 
 
 If at any time there is a doubt on the matter, 
 the urine of twenty- four hours should be collected 
 and the urea estimated to make certain. 
 
 Given sufficient albumens, it is a matter of very 
 little consequence where they come from, whether 
 from the animal or vegetable kingdom, though, of 
 course, where poisons are swallowed with the albu- 
 mens, the results will be affected, as we shall see 
 further on. The first point is, however, a sufficient 
 quantity of albumen, and this in a condition suit- 
 able for digestion and absorption. 
 
 With these simple facts kept in mind there is 
 no difficulty at all in getting sufficient albumen, 
 and therefore ample strength and nutrition, from 
 many kinds of food beside those which form the 
 staple diet of England to-day. 
 
 Those who have been ignorant of these facts, 
 and have attempted to walk without the light of 
 knowledge, have fallen into many and great errors, 
 but chiefly in one or two directions. 
 
 Either they have been ignorant of the quan- 
 tities required, and have over-estimated the 
 nutrition values of garden vegetables and fruits, 
 attempting to live on these alone (which it is 
 almost impossible to do) or they have under- 
 estimated the nutrition value of such things as 
 milk and cheese, and have eaten them in as large 
 quantities as the fruits and vegetables. 
 
 For it is possible, by introducing more food than 
 
12 DIET AND POOD — CHAPTER I 
 
 can readily be digested, to overpower digestion so 
 that nothing is digested and absorbed, and starva- 
 tion results, a fact which is brought to the front 
 in the most interesting manner in the writings of 
 Dr. Dewey.' 
 
 We learn, then, from fig. 1, that as suppHes run 
 short, urea and power of force production fall 
 lower and lower, but that a supply of food (when 
 digested, and generally in the course of thirty to 
 ninety minutes), introduces into the blood a fresh 
 supply of albumens available for the production of 
 force and urea, when the urea curve ascends and 
 the power of producing force is correspondingly 
 increased. 
 
 This is a simple experiment which any one can 
 repeat on themselves. 
 
 Fig. 2 shows the effect of a similar fast to that 
 of fig. 1, broken in the thirteenth hour after 8 p.m. 
 by taking ^ pint of milk. 
 
 Here in the hour ending 8 a.m. urea is at 12 
 grains per hour, and it rises at 9.0 above 18 grains 
 and gradually falls from that until 1 p.m., when 
 it is about 13 grains per hour. If we take it that 
 urea, had no food been taken, would have steadily 
 
 1 "The True Science of Living," by E. H. Kewey, M.D., 
 Norwich, Conn. The Henry Bill Publishing Company, and 
 J. and J. Bumpus, Ltd., Oxford Street, London, England. 
 1895. 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OF ALBUMEN AND UREA 
 
 13 
 
 fallen from 12 grains per hour to 9-5 grains per 
 hour at 1 p.m. and draw an imaginary line accord- 
 
 i 
 
 X 
 
 80 
 
 SO 
 
 lO'O 
 
 ll-O 
 
 2 NOON 1 ORM 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^la 
 
 Si 
 
 r\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 to 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 X 
 
 in 
 
 z 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 & 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 s: 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 14 
 13 
 
 :sS! 
 
 f 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 \ 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 fiQ. 2. — Effects of milk on the excretion of urea. 
 
 ingly, the urea enclosed between these two lines 
 will equal that produced in five hours from the 
 albumens of milk taken; this is about 28 grains, 
 
14 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER I 
 
 or almost exactly | of the calculated urea value 
 of I pint of milk, and probably the rest would have 
 been obtained, only that longer time would be 
 necessary for its extraction. It is the same with 
 cheese and other foods ; their urea value to some 
 extent comes out in five hours following ingestion, 
 and thus roughly the nutrition value and digesti- 
 bility of many foods may be directly tested on any 
 individual concerning whom the information may 
 be required. 
 
 Thus fig. 3 shows the effect of faking 1 oz. of 
 cheese at 8.15 a.m. Here it may be seen that in 
 contrast with the milk results, it is only in the 
 second hour after the cheese that a rise of urea 
 is produced. 
 
 So, considering that urea would have fallen much 
 as in the other figures, if no cheese had been 
 taken, we get urea enclosed between the two lines 
 equal to 17"7, say 18 grains, and this multiplied by 
 3 is equal to 54 grains of albumen. 
 
 This cheese is, however, theoretically equivalent 
 to 140 grains of albumen, so that in five hours of 
 digestion we have got less than half its urea and 
 albumen value, which looks as if cheese were both 
 harder and slower of digestion than milk, and is 
 probably after all less completely digested, leaving 
 greater undigested residues. 
 
 The cheese taken was Gruyere, and was some- 
 what hard from keeping, which probably accounts 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OF ALBUMEN AND UREA 15 
 
 for part of its slow digestion and indigestibility. 
 I give the result to show how the possible nu- 
 trition value of foods may be gauged by this 
 process. 
 
 Many people say they cannot digest milk or 
 cheese, but a few tests similar to these would 
 soon show whether there is any truth in the 
 statement. 
 
 A similar test may be applied to such foods 
 as nuts and gluten, to be mentioned further 
 on. These dry or hard albumens are, in my ex- 
 perience, more slowly digested than cheese, just 
 as one would expect and for the same reason, 
 since we see cheese is more slowly digested 
 than milk. 
 
 People vary considerably in their powers of 
 digesting these things, and while some produce 
 urea from them equal to at least f of their calcu- 
 lated value, others produce less even than half 
 their value, and others, again, appear not to 
 digest them at all, there being no rise of urea 
 whatever. 
 
 Circumstances which increase appetite and di- 
 gestive power seem to increase the urea obtained 
 from these dried forms of albumen, and thus some 
 people can digest these foods when leading an 
 active life, and cannot when sedentary. 
 
 On the same ground, those who are strong and 
 well fed digest better than people who are weak 
 
16 
 
 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER I 
 
 u: 
 
 a- IS 
 
 9-15 
 
 10' 15 
 
 tllS 
 
 ,215 
 
 l-IS 
 
 E 
 3 
 
 o 
 
 
 [\ 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 Q 
 Ul 
 
 Z 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 15 
 14 
 13 
 12 
 
 II 
 
 2 
 
 X 
 
 o 
 
 s 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 r. 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 \ 
 
 nJ 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 FlQ. 3. — Efieots of cheese on the excretion of urea. 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OF ALBUMEN AND UKEA 17 
 
 and under fed, for it is obvious that in the well 
 nourished the digestive juices are more potent and 
 the digestive processes more completely carried out. 
 
 Hence the great importance I attach to making 
 changes of diet slowly, that the fires of life may 
 not run down (see chap. iv.). 
 
 The old foods, therefore, must not be given up 
 till it is quite certain that a sufficient quantity of 
 the new can be substituted, for if nutrition is 
 lowered, digestion is impaired, and people are on a 
 downward incline, which may end in trouble. 
 
 The time at which the new foods are taken and 
 their admixture with other foods, make also impor- 
 tant differences in the results obtained, and I men- 
 tion these things here to bring out the value of the 
 above test, for the quantity of urea produced from 
 any food in a given time is an absolute guide to 
 the nutrition value of that food for the individual 
 on whom we are working. By this test milk 
 stands quite at the head of the list, and is followed 
 by cheese, and the above and other forms of hard 
 or desiccated albumens come some way behind both. 
 
 Persons who are in doubt should put the matter 
 to the test, and judge by results. 
 
 In those who cannot digest these hardened albu- 
 mens, they may act as irritants and upset the diges- 
 tion of other foods as well, possibly causing more 
 or less severe dyspepsia with loss of weight and 
 strength ; so that something like actual starvation 
 2 
 
18 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER I 
 
 may result even on a diet of which the calculated 
 albumens are sufficient. It is in these cases, not 
 only useless to swallow hard or dessicated albu- 
 mens, but may be actually dangerous to do so. 
 
 On the other hand, small quantities of such in- 
 digestible substances as a few Brazil nuts, three 
 times a day before meals, will sometimes cure 
 chronic constipation. They probably bring about 
 this result by leaving undigested residues which 
 stimulate the intestines and promote peristalsis ; 
 fiigs, dates and prunes may be mentioned as having 
 more or less similar effects. 
 
 In all cases it is necessary to hit the happy mean 
 between constipation on the one hand and chronic 
 dyspepsia with starvation on the other ; and those 
 who have altered their diet without much know- 
 ledge of physiology - have not always kept these 
 points sufficiently in mind. 
 
 By persons who have previously suffered from 
 intestinal irritation, such as gout of the intestines, 
 appendicitis, &c., such indigestible substances must 
 be specially avoided, or a relapse may be produced. 
 
 Fig. 4 shows the effect of swallowing 1 oz. of 
 brown sugar, which was finished at 8.40 a.m. 
 
 Here is seen a very marked rise of urea, from 
 13 grains in the hour ending 9.10 to 16 grains in 
 that ending 10.10, followed by a fall to 11-5 grains 
 in the horn- ending 1.10 p.m. 
 
 Now this rise of urea cannot be directly due to 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OF ALBUMEN AND UREA 
 
 19 
 
 the sugar, for it contains no nitrogen; the result 
 is probably due to the rise of acidity which pre- 
 cedes it. 
 
 Fig. i. —Effects of sugar on the excretion of urea and of acid. 
 
 Below the urea curve is shown the excretion of 
 acid in the urine in grains per hour, and from this 
 we see there was a marked rise in the excretion 
 of acid in the hour ending 9.10, and that it kept 
 at the same level in the two following hours. 
 
20 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER I 
 
 Eeaders of " Uric Acid " already know that 
 every rise of acidity is accompanied or followed by 
 a rise of urea, and we gather from works on 
 physiological chemistry, that the rise of acidity 
 which sugar produces is due to the effects of lactic 
 and butyric fermentation in the alimentary canal. 
 
 This, no doubt, accounts for the bad name 
 which sugar has had for many years as a producer 
 of gout and rheumatism ; though it may now be 
 seen that sugar produced these troubles indirectly 
 by its effects on acidity and the solubility of uric 
 acid, and that, if uric acid supplies are kept low 
 while the supply of fresh vegetables is good, sugar 
 need do no harm. In a word, the trouble with 
 sugar has arisen from associating it with auimal 
 flesh, while, taken with plenty of vegetables, such 
 as potatoes, it is relatively harmless. The rise of 
 acidity shown in our figure would do no harm to a 
 frugivore, but in a flesh-eater might precipitate an 
 arthritis. 
 
 This rise in acidity was probably due to. the 
 sugar, for normally the rise in the acidity of the 
 urine does not begin till 10 a.m., and when it 
 begins generally continues to ascend slowly till 
 2 or 3 p.m. (see "Uric Acid," fig. 3), but this rise, 
 beginning at 9.10 a.m., does not increase in the 
 two following hours. 
 
 Fig. 5 shows a similar curve, in which at 9.23 
 lUx. of dilute acetic acid were taken, and this is 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OF ALBUMEN AND UEBA 
 
 21 
 
 followed by a break in the downward trend of the 
 iirea curve, which, however, again falls rapidly to 
 8'5 grains in the hour ending 12.23. 
 
 § 
 
 X 
 
 i 
 i 
 
 13 
 12 
 II 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 ez3 
 
 9-23 
 
 10-23 
 
 11-23 
 
 1223 P.M 
 
 \ 
 
 z 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 A 
 
 \ 
 
 
 •s., 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 ACIDITY 
 
 •0 
 
 
 A 
 
 V 
 
 /\ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 UlBEA 
 
 Pig. 5. — Effects of an acid on the excretion of urea and of acid. 
 
 Below the urea curve is the acidity curve, and 
 this does not at once move upward after the acid 
 
22 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER I 
 
 is taken ; but in the hour ending 11.23 there is a 
 decided rise, not due to the normal rise at that hour, 
 because it does not continue in the hour ending 
 12.23. 
 
 I take it, therefore, that the rise at 11.23 was due 
 to the acetic acid and that the acidity (looking 
 to the rapid drop of urea from 14 to 8"6 grains in 
 about four hours) would have fallen further at 
 10.23 but for the acid taken ; that this affected the 
 blood before its full effect became visible in the 
 urine, and that the rise of urea represents the effect 
 of the acid on the circulation of the blood. But it 
 may be asked how it was that with a small rise of 
 acid of ^ grain in fig. 4 there was a rise of 3 grains 
 in urea, while with a rise of about 1 grain of acid in 
 fig. 5 there was a rise of probably less than 2 grains 
 of urea? 
 
 As already shown in." Uric Acid," (pp. 878 and 
 612), the rise of urea that follows the taking of an 
 acid, or a rise of acidity otherwise caused, is not 
 proportional to that acidity, but rather to the con- 
 dition of the blood and tissues when the acid is 
 taken, and the rise of acidity affects them. 
 
 I have also shown in "Uric Acid," (prev. refs.), 
 that a rise of acidity causes a rise of urea because 
 it clears the blood of uric acid, which, probably in 
 colloidal form, is obstructing the peripheral capil- 
 lary circulation and preventing the ready access of 
 the blood albumens to the tissues, and the removal 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OF ALBUMEN AND TJEEA 23 
 
 of waste products from them ; so that the rise of 
 urea which results is proportional, not so much to 
 the greatness of the rise of acidity, as to the con- 
 dition of the tissues at the time it takes place. 
 
 That is to say, the longer the tissue circulation 
 has been exposed to the obstructing influence of 
 colloid uric acid, the greater may be the accumu- 
 lation of waste products in those tissues and the 
 greater the rise of urea when the circulation through 
 them is once more freed. In illustration of this 
 point, I have remarked that the rise of urea which 
 follows the clearing of the blood of uric acid in 
 physiological conditions is only, as seen in these 
 figures, a matter of a few grains, but when the 
 blood is cleared of uric acid in Bright's disease 
 (where the obstruction to the circulation is both 
 greater and more lasting), urea may rise as much 
 as 100 grains in a day. 
 
 Hence I conclude that the difference in the extent 
 of the rise of urea in figs. 4 and 5 may be due to 
 some difference in the quantity of waste products 
 available in the tissues, and, in conformity with 
 this, it is to be observed that urea was falling 
 slowly as the result of the fast in fig. 4, while at 
 the same hours in fig. 5 it was falling very quickly 
 indeed. My notes on fig. 5 show that it relates to 
 the day following a large excretion of urea after 
 exercise, so that it is possible the muscles were on 
 this day rather poor both in stores of albumens and 
 
24 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTBB I 
 
 of waste products, and therefore the rise of acidity 
 produced relatively little effect. 
 
 I have gone at length into this question of the 
 effects of uric acid on circulation, nutrition and 
 excretion of urea, because we are here in sight of 
 the second great factor in nutrition, strength and 
 power of endurance. 
 
 Our first factor is an adequate supply of albu- 
 mens in a digestible form for introducing into the 
 blood stream the albumens necessary to produce in 
 the tissues, urea to the extent of 3'5 grains per lb. 
 of body weight per day, and the corresponding 
 amount of force. 
 
 Our second factor is the possibility of a satis- 
 factory circulation through the. tissues, bringing 
 these albumens to the tissues and removing the 
 corresponding waste products. 
 
 And this, as we see, is dependent on the absence 
 of any excess of uric acid from the blood stream. 
 
 It therefore follows that, as some sources of 
 albumens (such as animal flesh of all kinds) con- 
 tain either uric acid or substances equivalent 
 to it (such as the xanthins), these must be ruled 
 out, for the blood cannot be kept properly free 
 from this substance while it is being introduced 
 with every mouthful swallowed, and, if the blood 
 is not kept fairly free from it, the circulation 
 will not be that best suited to the production of 
 strength and endurance ; a fact of which we shall 
 see some practical proofs further on. 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OF ALBUMEN AND UREA 25 
 
 But to return to figs. 4 and 5 ; I give them to 
 show that the effect of 1 oz. of sugar (containing 
 no albumens) on the excretion of urea is very 
 sHght compared with the effect of 1 oz. of cheese, 
 and that this small effect is probably indirect and 
 due to the sugar altering the alkalinity of the 
 blood, and so affecting the circulation and meta- 
 bolism of the tissues and the removal of their 
 waste products. 
 
 We have thus far learned, then, that the pro- 
 duction of force requires : — 
 
 (1) A sufficient supply of albumens in a di- 
 gestible form. 
 
 (2) A satisfactory interstitial circulation of the 
 blood to carry these albumens to the tissues and 
 to remove waste products, while to make this 
 possible the blood must contain little or no uric 
 acid or similar substances, such as xanthins. 
 
 Before I leave the subject, illustrated by the 
 above figures of urea excretion, I will point out 
 that a small quantity of milk, cheese, or any food 
 of similar albumen value causes a feeling that 
 hunger is sated as urea rises, and a sensation of 
 returning hunger as urea falls. Whereas if a food 
 poor in albumen is taken, such as fruit, though 
 in much larger bulk than the milk or cheese, there 
 may be a feehng of fulness, but hunger is not 
 sated and there is httle or no rise of urea. So 
 that hunger is to a large extent a measure of 
 
26 DIET AND POOD — CHAPTER I 
 
 the want of albumens in the body, and is to be 
 met only by albuminous food, while as 1 oz. of 
 cheese is worth in albumens more than twenty 
 times its weight of fruit, it is clear that hunger 
 is not a matter of mere bulk. 
 
 Similarly, if sufficient albuminous food is taken 
 but something upsets digestion, there is little or 
 no rise of urea, and no increase of strength and 
 power, but rather a feeling of languor and debility 
 with a desire to keep quiet. 
 
 Good digestion is accompanied, so long as urea 
 is rising, by sensations of strength and a desire 
 to be up and doing, and from these observations 
 it is quite possible to tell whether digestion is 
 good, bad) indifferent, or nil. 
 
 It is not uncommon to meet with people who, 
 soon after eating a hearty meal start for some 
 exercise, but within half an hour are in a con- 
 dition bordering on collapse ; if questioned, they 
 will tell you that they have an intense feeling 
 of emptiness referred to the epigastrium, as if the 
 good meal recently eaten had given them the slip. 
 
 What has happened here ? Merely this, that 
 the exercise was too much for gastric digestion, and 
 caused its suspension, so that though the stomach 
 is full, there is no absorption of albumens into 
 the circulation, no rising urea, and no force avail- 
 able ; therefore, in spite of a full stomach, there 
 is a feeling of more or less emptiness, which 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OF ALBUMEN AND UREA 27 
 
 shows that the blood is poorly supplied with nutri- 
 tive albumens, and we find, if we estimate it, that 
 urea is falling, or at least, not rising. 
 
 A little rest puts matters right ; the stomach 
 circulation is restored, digestion begins again, albu- 
 men is absorbed, force produced, urea formed, and 
 the man walks perhaps quite well for many miles, 
 making almost as good use of his meal as if 
 nothing had occurred. 
 
 On the other hand, it is possible that the tem- 
 porary suspension of digestion may permit fer- 
 mentative, putrefactive, and other processes to take 
 place in the food mass, which continue and dis- 
 organise digestion for hours, days or weeks after- 
 wards. 
 
 A corresponding suspension of digestion, absorp- 
 tion and urea formation may be brought about 
 with exactly similar results by other disturbing 
 influences besides exercise, such as the circulation 
 changes produced by the rush of a quantity of 
 uric acid into the blood ; this producing, as I 
 have elsewhere explained (" Uric Acid," prev. ref., 
 p. 283), obstructive congestion of the whole diges- 
 tive circulation, and in consequence imperfection 
 or suspension of gastric digestion, with the other 
 results above mentioned. 
 
 This is the causation of the gastric upset and 
 vomiting, of the severe uric acid storm (or bilious 
 attack, so-called), and of the more or less sudden 
 
28 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER I 
 
 feelings of emptiness in cases of glycosuria and 
 diabetes, associated with such and similarly caused 
 circulation troubles and their effects on digestion 
 and the circulation and metabolism in the liver. 
 
 As readers of "Uric Acid" already know, every 
 rise of uric acid in the blood and urine is accom- 
 panied by a fall in urea, which is no doubt partly 
 due to defective circulation and metabolism in 
 the muscles and other important tissues (the reverse 
 effect to that shown in fig. 5), and partly also to 
 defective circulation and digestion in the stomach 
 and consequent diminished absorption of albumen 
 into the blood. 
 
 If, however, even at the end of the sixteenth, 
 seventeenth, or eighteenth hours no food is taken, 
 urea, in spite of this, often begins to rise a little, 
 and there comes a feeling of increased strength and 
 power, while the emptiness passes off or is greatly 
 lessened. 
 
 This means, I believe, that the body has begun to 
 feed on its own tissues, and there is a rise of urea 
 and of energy from this source ; but prolong the 
 fast for twenty-four to thirty-six hours and there 
 will be a distinct loss of weight, as in the boy above 
 mentioned who was put on a diet deficient in albu- 
 mens ; for this represents the albumen necessary 
 to raise urea and produce the force required for 
 the bodily functions, in the absence of supphes from 
 without. 
 
PHYSIOLOGY OF ALBUMEN AND UREA 29 
 
 This loss will be continued for weeks and weeks, 
 and sufficient albumen appropriated each day to 
 keep the chief functions of the body from coming 
 to a standstill, while a corresponding amount of 
 urea will be excreted. 
 
 Wc may sum up the main points in the physio- 
 logy of the subject by saying that the first requisite 
 for strength and power of endurance is a satisfac- 
 tory and sufficient supply of albumens, that the 
 body depends for these chiefly on the foods taken, 
 but there is also a small store of these substances 
 in certain tissues which becomes available if pro- 
 longed exertion is called for in the absence of food, 
 and beyond this point in continued starvation, 
 certain definite quantities of the tissues them- 
 selves, are daily absorbed to produce the necessary 
 force and urea. 
 
 My results are thus in complete accordance with 
 the teachings of those physiologists who say, that 
 albumen is the sine qud non of a diet that sustains 
 life ; and my researches, some of which I have pub- 
 lished in "Uric Acid" (prev. ref., p. 831), show 
 that the excretion of urea bears a definite relation 
 to force produced, and that a diet in which urea is 
 at or below 2'5 grains per pound of body weight per 
 day, will not suffice to produce much force in spite 
 of a liberal allowance of sugar, starch and fat. 
 
 Force is thus in all directions proportional to 
 urea, whether gauged from hour to hour or day 
 to day. 
 
30 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER I 
 
 The second requisite is a free circulation through 
 the tissues to introduce the albumens and to re- 
 move their waste products ; this circulation being 
 only possible in the comparative absence of uric 
 acid from the blood stream. The absence of uric 
 acid explains the rise of urea in fig. 5, and also the 
 still more marked rise in Bright 's disease, if the 
 blood can then be cleared of it. 
 
31 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Physiology and Pathology of Fatigue. 
 
 Feom what has already been said we gather that 
 fatigue (that is, the inability to produce force), may 
 be due to two causes : (1) a general dearth of albu- 
 mens in the blood, and (2) a condition in the blood 
 which leads to its defective circulation through the 
 tissues, so that though the blood may contain suffi- 
 cient albumens the tissues cannot readily obtain 
 them, the tissues themselves becoming also, as the 
 result of their activity, laden with waste products 
 which are not sufficiently quickly removed. 
 
 It will be well to go somewhat deeper into this 
 causation of fatigue, so as to obtain the power of 
 distinguishing in practical experience between the 
 fatigue due to the first, and that due to the second 
 condition. 
 
 Now the fatigue which proceeds from dearth of 
 albumens in the blood, is always absent so long as 
 sufficient food is taken and digested ; in the con- 
 dition of dyspepsia mentioned in the previous 
 chapter it was not digested. Therefore, if a man 
 in any trial of endurance drops out while supplied 
 
32 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER II 
 
 with sufficient albumens and apparently digesting 
 them, we may be sure that his fatigue is not due to 
 (1), but by exclusion is probably due to (2). 
 
 And practically, apart from digestive accidents, 
 the fatigue which is due to dearth of albumens does 
 not occur till some four or five hours after a meal, 
 nor till urea has begun to fall very considerably 
 below the level of 17 grains per hour, as shown, for 
 instance, in figs. 2 and 3. 
 
 So that, if a man who has a sufficient supply 
 of albumens, and a good digestion, yet falls out in 
 the early stage of a contest long before those albu- 
 mens can be exhausted, we must conclude that his 
 fatigue is due to uric acid in the blood, and may 
 proceed further to identify this condition by con- 
 sidering" its concomitant signs and symptoms. 
 
 As will appear from my consideration of the 
 subject in " Uric Acid " (prev. ref., p. 380), there is, 
 in addition to the sensation of powerlessness in the 
 limbs, a feeling of chilliness, with coldness of skin 
 and extremities, and a fall of surface temperature, 
 but temperature in the rectum will be raised and 
 separated more than usually from the surface tem- 
 perature (sign of excess of uric acid in the blood) ; 
 and for the same reason, the general blood pressure 
 will be raised, the diameter of the radial artery 
 increased, and the sounds of the heart altered. 
 
 Under this condition, if a white spot is made by 
 pressure with the finger-tip on the back of the 
 
PHTSIOLOGT AND PATHOLOGY OP FATIGUE 33 
 
 hand, the colour will take from three to four seconds 
 or more to return ; while where there is no excess of 
 uric acid in the blood, it may only take from one 
 and a half to two seconds.^ 
 
 These are all effects of one and the same cause, 
 defective capillary circulation (which can be seen 
 on the back of the hand), affecting especially the 
 temperature of surfaces and extremities, but affect- 
 ing also the circulation of the whole body, raising 
 the blood pressure and influencing the action of the 
 heart. 
 
 On the other hand, the man whose fatigue is 
 caused by deficiency of albumens, will not suffer 
 from coldness- nearly so much ; will have little 
 difference between surface and deep temperatures, 
 and little, if any, slowing of the capillary reflux 
 on the back of the hand ; nor will he have a 
 general rise of blood pressure with increased 
 diameter of the arteries, nor much alteration of 
 the sounds of the heart. 
 
 This man is all right in himself, supplies have 
 merely run short ; give him fresh albumens, and 
 a little time (such as we see from fig. 1 is required) 
 to digest them, and he will promptly be himself 
 again ; or even a rest without any fresh albumens 
 will enable him to draw on his reserves and tissue 
 albumens, and he will be able to go on once more. 
 
 ' See British Medical Journal, October, 1899. 
 
34 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER II 
 
 Far different is the case of the other man, for 
 even if he is supplied with albumens it will do 
 little good ; he has already sufficient in his blood, 
 but they cannot get to the tissues, and, owing 
 to the general defective circulation, his digestion 
 of new albumens will be as slow as all his other 
 physiological processes. 
 
 To supply him with fresh food may add to his 
 troubles by starting dyspepsia, if not putrefaction, 
 in the digestive organs, and presently he may 
 vomit all the fresh supplies almost untouched by 
 digestion. 
 
 To get this man into a condition to proceed 
 may be a matter of hours, possibly days ; and 
 the first necessity is to clear the uric acid out of 
 the blood. If this can be done, there will imme- 
 diately be a rise of urea and a return of power 
 without any fresh nourishment ; thus further illus- 
 trating the points already mentioned in reference 
 to figs. 4 and 5. 
 
 The best way to clear the blood of uric acid is, 
 as we see from these figures, to give acids, acid 
 wines, acid fruits ; in fact, acid in any form most 
 likely to be absorbed from the stomach ; or calomel, 
 or other metals that form insoluble compounds 
 with uric acid will be effectual, as I have pointed 
 out in previous writings. But as the whole object 
 of this book is to show that, with proper care in 
 selecting our sources of albumen, this fatigue and 
 
PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF FATIGUE 35 
 
 the obstructed circulation produced by uric acid 
 collaemia need not occur, I shall not here go 
 further into the treatment of the condition by 
 means of acids and drugs. 
 
 While speaking of this, however, I will again 
 point out that though the albuminous foods are 
 those that really control the situation, other foods 
 have effects which may easily appear to be of more 
 importance than they really are. 
 
 Thus, though in fig. 4 the effect of 1 oz. of sugar 
 is very small compared with that of 1 oz. of cheese, 
 any one who had taken the sugar would say that 
 he felt distinctly stronger and better for it; and 
 this would certainly be the case while acidity and 
 urea were rising, partly because some albumen is 
 indirectly rendered available for force production, 
 and partly because the amount of uric acid in 
 the blood is diminished and the circulation thus 
 improved. 
 
 But it would also be the case if the rise of 
 acidity was produced by an acid containing no food 
 elements whatever (see fig. 5) ; so that while I do 
 not say that carbohydrates, oils and fats have no 
 effect on nutrition, and am not discussing their 
 influence on the production of force in other forms 
 (such as heat), I do say that their effect on the 
 production of force and activity, and the excretion 
 of urea is so slight and indirect, that it may for 
 the present be neglected, with the object of 
 
36 DIET AND POOD — CHAPTER II 
 
 making our knowledge of the metabolism of the 
 albumens more useful and readily available. 
 
 Since I propose to point out that those who are 
 free from excess of uric acid in the blood are also 
 free from the severe and intractable form of fatigue 
 just described, I must at the same time mention 
 that the difference between sufferers and those 
 who do not suffer is one of degree only, for all 
 have some uric acid in the blood, and are in- 
 fluenced in the same way by acids and other drugs 
 which clear it out of the circulation. 
 
 In cases having no excess of uric acid in the 
 body and blood, an acid, or acid-forming food in- 
 troduced into the stomach will at once be absorbed 
 and clear out any uric acid there may be in the 
 circulation, whereas in people who are full of uric 
 acid, digestion and absorption are as much upset 
 by the large quantity of uric acid in the blood as 
 are the muscular circulation, skin circulation and 
 general metabolism, and the condition is difficult 
 or impossible to cure, since food and drugs in- 
 troduced into the stomach may easily remain 
 unabsorbed. Uric acid collsemia is a curable con- 
 dition in the one case, but is certainly for a time 
 more or less incurable in the other. 
 
 I have pointed out in " Uric Acid," that if urea 
 excretion is watched during exercise, it is possible 
 to ascertain whether fatigue is coming early, and 
 whether such fatigue is due to excess of uric acid. 
 
PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OP FATIGUE 37 
 
 Por exertion generally causes, as we have seen, a 
 rise of urea ; but if there is much uric acid in the 
 blood, exertion will lead to a fall of urea in place 
 of a rise, and more or less severe fatigue is soon 
 experienced. 
 
 This is the reason why physiologists have con- 
 cluded that urea is not formed in direct relation to 
 the force produced ; for they have made no allow- 
 ance for the influence of collssmia, which, hinder- 
 ing both the complete metabolism of albumens 
 and the excretion of urea, produces a fall in the 
 excretion of this substance for some hours in spite 
 of an actual rise in the formation — a rise, however, 
 possibly ooly visible next day. 
 
 This fatigue can be prevented, as I shall show, 
 by means of a uric-acid-free diet providing the 
 necessary albumens, or it can also, as already 
 demonstrated in " Uric Acid," be evaded by pre- 
 viously clearing out all available uric acid ; e.g., 
 either by a course of salicylate to be left off on the 
 day of exercise, or else by giving acids, mercury, 
 &c., to temporarily clear the blood at the time of 
 exercise. In fact, it matters not how the blood is 
 cleared so long as it is kept free during the exer- 
 tion, and in these circumstances there is a rise of 
 urea proportionate to the force produced. 
 
 There is another point ; namely, that exercise 
 brings excess of uric acid into the blood by causing 
 the elimination of acids in perspiration. The acidity 
 
38 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTBE II 
 
 of the urine is thus diminished and the alkaHnity 
 of the blood increased, and it becomes a better 
 solvent of uric acid, so that it straightway dissolves 
 as much of that substance as is available in the 
 tissues. 
 
 In a word, exercise acts like a dose of alkali, and 
 reverses the effects which are produced by acids, 
 hence, in those who have plenty of available uric 
 acid, heat and fatigue are contemporaneous, and 
 almost synonymous ; but in those who are free 
 from excess of uric acid, heat and perspiration have 
 little or no power of producing collsemia, and fatigue 
 is to a corresponding extent delayed. 
 
 Indeed, the records we are now receiving show 
 that the less animal flesh people take the better do 
 they come out in trials of endurance. As regards 
 force production, those having equivalent quanti- 
 ties of albumen, animal or vegetable, will equal each 
 other ; but in endurance those will excel whose 
 albumens are procured from such animal and veget- 
 able sources as are practically free from uric acid, 
 and who do not indulge in the stimulant poisons 
 of tea, coffee, and other alkaloid-containing sub- 
 stances. 
 
 So far as I know the " vegetarians " of this 
 country are decidedly superior in endurance to 
 those feeding on animal tissues, who might other- 
 wise be expected to equal them ; but these " vege- 
 tarians " would be better still if they not only ruled 
 
PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF FATIGUE 39 
 
 out animal flesh, but also eggs, the pulses (peas, 
 beans, lentils and pea- nuts), cashew nuts, asparagus 
 and mushrooms, as well as tea, coffee, and cocoa, 
 all of which contain a large amount of uric acid, 
 or substances physiologically equivalent to it. 
 
 It follows that meat is a stimulant because of 
 the acid salts it contains, for uric acid itself is 
 one, as may be demonstrated by swallowing a few 
 grains of it, and this is the chief stimulant in beef- 
 tea, soups, meat extracts, and other deadly decoc- 
 tions of flesh. Meat, however, also c^niains a 
 supply of easily digested albumens, and the effect of 
 swallowing animal flesh is, that digestion is t-tiDau- 
 lated and circulation improved by the acids and 
 acid salts, so that the albumens are quickly digested 
 and rendered available. As a result, the meat-eater 
 is sooner in a position to evolve large quantities of 
 force than the man who gets his albumen — per- 
 haps exactly the same in amount — from a less 
 stimulating source. 
 
 But there is another side to the question, for in 
 so far as this effect of flesh is due to stimulation, it 
 will come to an abrupt end : just as we see in fig. 5 
 that the rise of urea after an acid is followed by 
 a fall which is rapid and decided. And the albu- 
 mens of flesh being thus rapidly available, it follows 
 that (other things, such as quantity, being equal) 
 these albumens are also more quickly worked off 
 and dissipated than those having a less stimulating 
 
40 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER II 
 
 origin in cheese or vegetables ; though a somewhat 
 similar effect can be produced by eating acid fruits 
 and vegetables with cheese, milk, &c. 
 
 It therefore follows that a meal of meat, as com- 
 pared with a meal of milk, cheese and bread, 
 equally rich in albumens, is like the force in an 
 explosive oil, as compared with the same amount 
 in a slow-burning oil. 
 
 And the man who has dined on flesh, though 
 possibly more lively and energetic at first, will find 
 himself at the end of stimulation and available 
 albumens, and faced by rapidly falling urea and 
 increasing fatigue, some time before an opponent, 
 whose precisely similar allowance of albumen was 
 drawn from other sources. 
 
 Stimulation is not strength, but force rendered a 
 little more quickly available ; and it is invariably 
 followed by an exactly corresponding amount of 
 depression, when the force is used up and must be 
 replaced. 
 
 Again, the meat-eater whose blood is temporarily 
 cleared as the result of acid stimulation has not, 
 therefore, got rid of that uric acid ; it is waiting 
 in his body and will return in increased quantity 
 into the circulation as soon as the rise of acidity 
 and stimulation comes to an end. Hence this man 
 may, some time before his next meal, have an 
 excess of uric acid in the blood and suffer from 
 fatigue as a result, while his milk, cheese, and 
 
PHYSIOLOGY ANB PATHOLOGY OF FATIGUE 41 
 
 bread-eating opponent, with less uric acid to return 
 into the blood, will escape. 
 
 I think the action of meat, as a stimulant and 
 producer of quickly worked off force, has a good 
 deal to say to the fact that, as we have eaten 
 more and more meat, we have come to have a 
 larger number of meals in the day; and while the 
 bread, cheese and vegetable feeder can do well on 
 two, or at most three, meals daily, the flesh feeders 
 often take four, or even five. 
 
 _It is perhaps also the reason why an exaggerated 
 and erroneous estimate has been formed of the 
 power of meat to produce force, that its stimu- 
 lating effect has been mistaken for power, and the 
 subsequent depression has either been overlooked 
 (which is possible for a 'time), or later has been 
 counteracted by alcohol, tobacco and other more 
 harmful stimulants. The man who gets his albu- 
 mens from a less stimulating source, having no 
 early stimulation, has no subsequent depression, 
 and so probably never feels the want of alcohol at all. 
 
 Hence it follows that those who take alcohol on 
 a flesh diet, generally very soon give it up when 
 flesh foods are relinquished, and smoke very little 
 also, being independent of stimulant. Yet if what 
 most meat- eaters say were true, namely, that meat 
 is much more nourishing and supporting than 
 milk, bread, cheese, fruit and vegetables, it ought 
 to be exactly the other way, and those who live 
 
42 DIET AND POOD — CHAPTER II 
 
 on the latter foods should be the ones to require 
 alcohol, and be unable to dispense with it. 
 
 Another very common effect of meat - eating, 
 whether alcohol is or is not taken, will be a 
 certain amount of dulness, heaviness, and disincli- 
 nation for mental or bodily exertion in the morning 
 hours, often associated with more or less irritability 
 and mental depression. (See also similar facts men- 
 tioned further on from the records of others.) 
 
 In fact, the meat-eater is never quite himself or 
 at his best till the evening, when rising acidity 
 clears his blood for a time from excess of uric 
 acid ; and this is, I think, at least one of the 
 factors that has caused our morning and evening 
 hours to grow progressively later as we have 
 drifted into living more in towns, eating more 
 luxuriously, and taking more poisons. 
 
 It is misery to rise in the morning hours if you 
 feel dull, depressed and unrefreshed ; it is a pleasure 
 to prolong the evening conviviality when you feel 
 bright and cheerful. Few or none realise that a 
 multitude of such minor grievances, with much 
 waste of good daylight and heavy bills for artificial 
 light, are direct results of wrong habits of eating 
 and drinking. 
 
 We see, then, that there are two forms of fatigue, 
 one due to absence of albumens from the blood, 
 because albuminous foods are deficient ; and one 
 due to absence of albumens from the muscular 
 
PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF FATIGUE 43 
 
 tissues, because, though there is plenty of albumen 
 in the blood, the blood is unable to get freely to 
 the tissues. Both forms of fatigue are really due 
 to defective supply of albumens to the tissues, but 
 the latter has the additional complication that, 
 the circulation being defective, waste products are 
 not removed from the tissues but remain to further 
 hinder their function and nutrition. 
 
 Thus, in the walking race to be meatirneu 
 further on, in which the vegetarians are S'^id t 
 have walked the meat-eaters off their logs, lood 
 was partaken of by both alike, but the meat-eaters 
 had impure blood, so that they could neither digest 
 the albumens nor get them to their tissues when 
 digested, and so failed, not from defective supply 
 but from obstructed circulation. Further, the 
 vegetable feeders arrived fresh and in good condi- 
 tion and the winner asserted that he could have 
 gone faster if necessary ; whereas the only meat- 
 eater who came in at all required brandy to revive 
 him. 
 
 We have also seen that by means of diet it is 
 possible to completely prevent the latter form of 
 fatigue leaving the individual, who thus controls 
 his intake, liable only to that form of fatigue which 
 is due to deficient albumen, from poor or irregular 
 food supplies. 
 
 More recently, May, 1902, in a walking match 
 (Dresden to Berlin, 125 miles), six vegetarians again 
 
44 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTBB II 
 
 came in first, and the then champion walker of 
 Germany was among those who gave up the con- 
 test. The winner, Karl Mann, who trained for 
 the most part by the rules in this book, made two 
 world's records in the race, and arrived some three 
 hours before any one else. 
 
 I have pointed out in " Uric Acid " that other 
 things such as nutrition and the supply of albu- 
 mens being equal, I can absolutely control the 
 incidence of fatigue by controlling uric acid ; that 
 I can prevent fatigue for many hours in spite 
 of great heat and exertion, either by sweeping out 
 beforehand most of the available uric acid by 
 means of a solvent such as a salicylate, or by 
 clearing the blood directly with drugs such as 
 acids, opium or mercury, thus acting on uric 
 acid by interfering with its solubility which is a 
 repetition of the way in which meat acts as a 
 stimulant. I have indicated that these methods 
 have been used probably for thousands of years 
 by those who had no exact knowledge of their 
 mode of action, e.g., opium for fatigue of men and 
 horses in India, and lemons, &c., by athletes on 
 this side of the world, and I have come across 
 several individuals who had similarly made use of 
 mercury or more recently of salicylates, for the 
 effect on their mental or bodily powers. I have 
 also remarked that exactly the same result can 
 be produced by clearing the blood of uric acid by 
 
PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF FATIGUE 45 
 
 means of diet, and have said that whereas in my 
 own case while on ordinary flesh diet I might often 
 be hors de combat in half an hour or an hour from 
 exposure to heat and exertion, on a uric-acid-free 
 diet I can confidently reckon on being able to 
 produce large amounts of force for at least three 
 or four hours, in spite of any heat met with in 
 this country. And I have stated that abstainers 
 from flesh all over the world have had similar 
 experiences, and not infrequently get the better 
 of flesh-eating opponents from this cause. 
 
 I have demonstrated that fatigue, which is pro- 
 duced by a rush of uric acid into the blood, is 
 accompanied by an immediate fall of urea, while 
 exercise without such uric acid in the blood and 
 without fatigue, is accompanied by an immediate 
 rise of urea, and no doubt it would thus be easy 
 to tell from the urea excretion of two athletic 
 competitors which would fail first. 
 
 In myself also, the rise and fall of urea as shown 
 in the previous figures, is accurately represented 
 in the sensations of strength or weakness, so that 
 over and over again it has occurred to me in 
 making these and similar curves to write down 
 my feelings at the time, and to find afterwards, 
 when the urine had been collected and estimated 
 and the urea worked out, that they had accurately 
 represented the changes taking place in the excre- 
 tion of urea. And any one who will note his own 
 
46 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER II 
 
 sensations during such a change in the excretion 
 of urea as is shown in fig. 1 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., 
 will have no difficulty in understanding this. 
 
 I have now no doubt that the severe collapse 
 and asthenia following attacks of gastric dyspepsia 
 or gastritis from any cause, are due to a stoppage 
 of the digestion and absorption of albumens (pro- 
 ducing a corresponding fall in the production of 
 force and urea), and that the fall in urea would 
 be found in all such cases if the urine were 
 collected and examined. 
 
 In the same way an injury to any part of the 
 body which causes serious interference with gastric 
 digestion will produce similar asthenia and fall of 
 urea, and it is a sequence of our first principles 
 that in flesh-eaters such fall of urea is the signal 
 for a rush of uric acid into the blood, and that 
 this still further hampers and impedes digestion, 
 circulation and nutrition in all directions, giving 
 rise to the serious and fatal complications of 
 shock. 
 
 It is a further sequence that abstainers from 
 flesh and tea have, as compared with flesh-eaters 
 and tea-drinkers, a certain relative immunity from 
 shock after injury and its more severe results ; 
 and this is, I think, as shown by cases quoted 
 in "Uric Acid" (pp. 405 and 870), a matter of 
 common observation. 
 
 It seems, then, that there is overwhelming 
 
PHYSIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY OF FATIGUE 47 
 
 evidence to prove that fatigue or its absence is 
 simply a matter of the adequate supply of albumen 
 to the muscles, and this in turn is controlled by 
 two factors : (1) a satisfactory and sufficient supply 
 of albumens in the blood, and (2) a free circu- 
 lation of blood through the tissues to furnish the 
 albumen as required, and remove vyaste products. 
 
 We see, also, that diet places both these factors 
 under our control and that the excretion of urea 
 is a reliable guide to the results it produces. 
 
48 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 Foods Available : their Properties and 
 Eelative Importance. 
 
 The foods available are so numerous, that we 
 must first of all divide them into classes and 
 consider them in a general v?ay. 
 
 These classes have one thing in common, that 
 they contain no uric acid, or very little indeed 
 compared -with animal flesh, eggs, or vegetable 
 substances rich in alkaloids, such as pulses, cashew 
 nuts, asparagus and mushrooms, tea, coffee and 
 cocoa, which are, for the reasons given in previous 
 chapters, excluded. 
 
 The uric-acid-free foods fall, then, into the 
 following classes or groups : — 
 
 (1) Milk and milk products, as cheese. 
 
 (2) Bread stuffs, cereal foods and glutens. 
 
 (3) Nuts and nut foods. 
 
 (4) Garden vegetables, as potatoes. 
 
 (5) Garden fruits, as apples. 
 
 (6) Dried and foreign fruits. 
 
 Milk is one of the best of these foods because 
 
FOODS AVAILABLE 49 
 
 it is easy and quick of digestion and affords, as 
 we have seen in fig. 2, a supply of albumens, and 
 therefore of force and urea, in a comparatively 
 short space of time. 
 
 Many people believe that they cannot take milk, 
 and there are undoubtedly a good many things in 
 ordinary diet with which it does not harmonise, 
 e.g., flesh, beer, wine and tobacco ; but the mistake 
 is in the use of these, and the disuse of a more 
 wholesome food. 
 
 A difficulty in digesting milk generally resolves 
 itself into taking it with improper foods, in im- 
 proper quantities, or at improper times ; when 
 people have already swallowed a good and sufficient 
 meal of other things and add a tumbler or more 
 of milk, they are very likely to have some digestive 
 trouble. 
 
 People who take three or four good meals a 
 day and add a tumbler of milk between times 
 to keep up their strength, are much more likely 
 to tire out the gastric digestion and acquire 
 dyspepsia and debuity. All this, however, cannot 
 be charged to the milk but to the foolish way in 
 which it is taken. 
 
 When milk is treated, as a most important food 
 deserves to be, that is, taken at one or two of the 
 three daily meals and distributed among the rest 
 of the foods, such as bread, cereals, vegetables and 
 fruits, it is, in the great majority of cases, easily 
 4 
 
50 DIET AND POOD — CHAPTER III 
 
 digested and furnishes its proper quantum of 
 albumens, force and urea. 
 
 Very much the same appHes to cheese and the 
 bad character it frequently bears, which is much 
 more often due to the way in which it is eaten at 
 the end of a meal already too heavy, or to excess 
 of quantity or deficiency of mastication. 
 
 Cheese contains more albumen than any other of 
 the common foods, and should be taken early in 
 the meal and well distributed through bread stuffs 
 or vegetables : it must be well broken up and 
 masticated, and if it is hard and the teeth bad it 
 should be grated or cooked before use. 
 
 Those living on a mixed diet rarely require to 
 take more than 1 or 2 ozs. of cheese in a day; that 
 is, 1 oz. at two meals, and I have never met any one 
 who could not take this quantity easily and digest 
 it well, when going the right way to work. 
 
 Bread stuffs and cereal foods are the most im- 
 portant items in the diet list ; containing much 
 less albumen than cheese they are eaten in much 
 larger quantity, and generally form the backbone 
 of the mixed diets, often contributing one-half or 
 more of the day's allowance of albumens. 
 
 A larger volume than this would scarcely suffice 
 to enumerate their kinds, qualities and prepara- 
 tions, and I must content myself with saying 
 that they appear to me (especially in the form of 
 bread or biscuit) to furnish a steady and equable 
 
FOODS AVAILABLE 51 
 
 supply of albumens over a number of hours, and 
 thus to increase the powers of endurance of those 
 who use them, being in this respect at the opposite 
 pole of nutrition from milk or meat. 
 
 A bread stuff diet may sometimes be eaten 
 almost all day long without strict attention to meal- 
 times, in a way and to an extent that milk and 
 cheese could not be taken without causing serious 
 dyspepsia. 
 
 Another great advantage of a diet consisting 
 largely of bread and bread stuffs is that it is dry, 
 as distinguished from a milk diet, which, of course, 
 implies much fluid. And in the treatment of many 
 uric acid diseases this is so great an advantage 
 that, while it is hardly possible to treat some of 
 them on milk, they are at once shorn of many of 
 their terrors by being put on a relatively dry diet 
 of bread stuffs. 
 
 Uric acid diseases fall chiefly into two groups : 
 {a) The arthritic group, containing gout, rheuma- 
 tism, and similar affections of many fibrous tissues 
 throughout the body ; (&) the circulation group 
 containing headache, epilepsy, mental depression, 
 anaemia, Bright's disease, &c. Now the members 
 of this latter and far larger group are nearly 
 all associated with high blood pressure and its 
 secondary troubles, and it is almost impossible to 
 attain success with these while two or three pints 
 of milk are swallowed every day ; whereas on a 
 
52 DIET AND POOD — CHAPTER III 
 
 dry diet of bread stuffs many of their more severe 
 symptoms are not difficult to control. 
 
 The most important point in the complete and 
 satisfactory digestion of bread stuffs is to ensure 
 their thorough mixing with the saliva, and this is 
 greatly facilitated by taking them in a dry state. 
 
 Thus toasted bread, biscuits and rusks into which 
 the saliva can penetrate easily are much more 
 readily and certainly digested than such things as 
 new bread, bread and milk, porridges or milky 
 puddings, upon which the saliva acts slowly and 
 with difficulty after more or less dilution with 
 other fluids. 
 
 The three chief forms of bread foods are breads', 
 biscuits and puddings ; and when they are taken 
 in this last form they should always be firm and 
 solid so that they can be cut with a knife and eaten 
 almost like bread, requiring and getting plenty of 
 mastication and teeth work. 
 
 Even teeth are not an absolute necessity, for if 
 dry bread stuffs are well sucked they become com- 
 pletely mixed with saliva and softened by the aid 
 of the tongue and gums, so that those whose teeth 
 have been ruined by the fibres of meat and fish, 
 for which Nature probably never intended them, 
 (see figs. 6 and 7), can adapt themselves to a bread 
 stuff diet. 
 
 As I have said, bread stuffs are slowly digested, 
 and give a steady supply of urea and force over a 
 
FOODS AVAILABLE 53 
 
 number of hours. Thus 400 grs. of albumen taken 
 as milk may be nearly all worked off in about two 
 or three hours from the time it is swallowed, while 
 a precisely similar amount of albumen taken as 
 bread would probably continue to supply force for 
 at least an hour longer. The amount of force 
 available in, say, the first two hours might not be 
 as great on bread as on milk, but it would be more 
 steady and continuous (I gave a figure to show 
 this in a paper, " Living on Bread," read before 
 the American Medical Association, and published 
 in their Journal in 1901). 
 
 This is probably what people mean when they 
 say that a meal of bread lasts better than a meal 
 of meat, for meat, like milk, is quickly digested and 
 worked off, and probably the slow metabolism of 
 bread accounts, at least in part, for the superior 
 powers of endurance shown by grain-eating animals, 
 and, I might add, of grain-eating men (see records 
 further on). 
 
 If you must work very hard for an hour only, 
 take milk, but if you have to do steady work for 
 three or four hours take bread ; for force is, as I 
 have shown, in all conditions proportional to urea 
 (for urea is the ash of the albumen metabolised), 
 and urea and force rise quickly in the case of milk, 
 more slowly in the case of bread. 
 
 Bread stuffs form a very convenient diet for those 
 who are moving about the world, for they can be 
 
54 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER III 
 
 obtained almost anywhere, and where not obtain- 
 able are easily carried. 
 
 The cereals have been the sustenance of a large 
 part of mankind in the past and are still the foods 
 of the great majority : it is only in a few countries 
 where flesh-eating has been carried to great excess 
 that they have fallen into comparative neglect. 
 
 I agree, however, with Dr. Kellogg and those 
 of his school, who teach the importance of com- 
 plete and thorough cooking of cereal foods,^ for 
 the use of such foods is often an additional help 
 in severe dyspepsia, but I find that many people 
 can take ordinary bread, biscuits, and cereal foods 
 if they are careful to take them dry (a point also 
 insisted on by Dr. Kellogg), and that the complete 
 penetration of the saliva thus insured will, in 
 many people, make all the difference between 
 flatulent dyspepsia and satisfactory digestion of 
 cereals. I shall have to mention this subject again 
 in connection with the common causes of dyspepsia 
 (see chap. iv.). 
 
 It appears probable, for reasons which I have 
 given at some length in " Uric Acid," pp. 835 and 
 836, that the outer husk of all grain foods contains 
 some xanthin. 
 
 ' Super-cooked cereal foods, as advised by Dr. Kellogg, can 
 be obtained from the International Health Association, Ltd., 
 70, Legg Street, Birmingham. 
 
FOODS AVAILABLE 55 
 
 I therefore, as a rule, advise that only the 
 breads and cereal foods which are free from the 
 brown outer husk should be used, and this ex- 
 cludes all forms of wholemeal and brown bread, 
 and also oatmeal, in which a considerable amount 
 of husk is often visible. 
 
 As a matter of fact, littl"e or nothing is lost by 
 this exclusion, for it has been proved in the re- 
 searches undertaken by the Agricultural Depart- 
 ment of the United States (Annual Eeport, June 
 30, 1901, p. 469), that wholemeal bread is very 
 often incompletely digested, and the nourishment 
 obtained from it is therefore not more than that 
 obtained from white bread (see previous remarks 
 on indigestible substances, pp. 18 and 19). 
 
 The figures in the U.S. Tables (Bulletin, No. 28, 
 pp. 60 and 61) are as follows : — 
 
 (1) White bread (olieap grade) . . 10-97 per cent, albumen. 
 
 (2) Whole wheat bread .. .. 9-7 ,, ,, 
 
 (3) White bread 8 „ ,, 
 
 So that, in every way, the best bread is that 
 made from cheap or "seconds" flour, which con- 
 tains most of the albumen, without the objectionable 
 outer husk. 
 
 Those have the best bread who make it at 
 home, and generally speaking the less a food has 
 been manufactured, manipulated and tampered 
 with the better for the consumer. Plain, simple 
 foods, as direct as possible from fields, orchards 
 and woods, should always be our aim. 
 
56 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTEB III 
 
 Rice, the staple food of many Eastern countries, 
 is another important cereal, and in this country 
 we have probably neither treated it properly nor 
 appreciated it as it deserves. 
 
 The nations which depend upon rice are careful 
 to get it good, to cook it thoroughly, and to have 
 it as dry as possible when served. With this 
 object they steam rather than boil it, or if water 
 is added it is all boiled away, as any water poured 
 off after cooking carries nourishment with it. 
 
 I have been told that much of the rice sent to 
 this country is not what is considered the best 
 by the natives of countries where it is grown, 
 and one can quite understand that it is useless 
 to send the best to countries where it is not 
 appreciated. 
 
 Gluten is the albumen of bread or flour, and 
 can be added to bread, biscuits, puddings, or other 
 cereals to increase, if need be, their albumen 
 values ; it may also be iised by itself in various 
 forms, where, the starch of cereals is not wanted.^ 
 
 N'uts and nut foods are valuable because fairly 
 rich in albumens ; but have the disadvantage that 
 they are apt to prove indigestible if the teeth are 
 not sound and well used in masticating them, 
 though the use of a nut-mill will to some extent 
 
 ' Gluten bread, biscuits, and other preparations of gluten 
 can be obtained from Blatchley, 167, Oxford Street, AV. ; 
 Callard, 65, Regent Street, W. ; or Van Abbott, 104, Wigmore 
 Street, W, 
 
FOODS AVAILABLE 57 
 
 make up for defective teeth. They often contain a 
 considerable quantity of oil, and many biscuits and 
 foods prepared from them do not keep well owing 
 to changes in this oil. 
 
 Nevertheless, nuts are by no means to be neg- 
 lected ; they form a large item in the diet of 
 many nations, and with some they more or less 
 completely take the place of bread. 
 
 This is specially the case with chestnuts, which, 
 when well cooked, are easily digested by almost 
 everyone, and other nuts may be passed through 
 a nut-mill and reduced to a meal if the teeth are 
 defective. 
 
 Chestnut-flour can be obtained from the grocer 
 and may be mixed with other flour or meal for 
 scones, &c. ; while pounded almonds are used in 
 the same way, or made into cakes by themselves or 
 with sugar, as in the almond paste of cakes. But 
 all who use these things for the first time should 
 bear in mind the points mentioned on pp. 18, 19, 
 and be cautious as to quantity and careful as to 
 complete mastication, rejecting all hard and in- 
 soluble particles. 
 
 As a rule, however, those who select the more 
 tender nuts, such as walnuts or pine kernels, and 
 are careful to have them ground in a mill, or 
 pounded in a mortar before use ; and further, begin 
 with a small quantity, such as a tablespoonful or 
 less, of ground nut, eventually acquire the power 
 
58 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER III 
 
 of taking them in fair quantity without trouble 
 and with considerable benefit. 
 
 Nuts, like breadstuffs, are slow of digestion, and 
 their albumens come into the blood and are avail- 
 able for the production of force and urea, chiefly 
 in the second, third and fourth hours after inges- 
 tion, though they give off some albumen for several 
 hours more. 
 
 They have the advantage that while containing 
 twice as much albumen, they have only half the 
 bulk of bread, containing little or no starch they 
 do not give rise to starch dyspepsia (a fertile source 
 of trouble with bread) ; and lastly, they have a 
 very good effect in regulating the bowels and pre- 
 venting constipation. 
 
 Beginners must, of course, regulate and adjust 
 the quantities in accordance with the effects re- 
 quired in these directions. 
 
 Nuts can also be preserved more easily than 
 bread or grain, and having only half the bulk are 
 more portable than breadstuffs. 
 
 Those who,- for one reason or another, do not 
 like milk or cheese, should remember that from 
 one pound of bread, or bread stuffs of equal value 
 (as in puddings), and a few ounces of nuts, or 
 almonds, nearly three-quarters of the albumens 
 required for a day can be obtained, so that in this 
 way they may get on with very little milk or cheese, 
 or even dispense with them. 
 
FOODS AVAILABLE 59 
 
 Speaking generally, garden vegetables contain 
 very little albumen and are of use to supply bulk, 
 and to dilute and break up the more albuminous 
 foods, such as milk and cheese, rather than for 
 their albumens. 
 
 Potatoes, in addition to somewhat less than 2 
 per cent, of albumens, contribute a considerable 
 quantity of alkali, which is often useful to keep 
 down the acidity of the urine and prevent reten- 
 tion of uric acid by other foods, some of which, 
 such as the cereals, have been mentioned as con- 
 tributing some excess of acids. 
 
 For this reason eating a moderate quantity of 
 potatoes twice a day may suffice to make a urine 
 which tends to throw out a little red sand from 
 time to time owing to relatively high acidity 
 cease to do so, and those who suffer in this way 
 from eating acid fruits should counteract their 
 effects by taking a corresponding quantity of 
 potatoes. 
 
 Garden fruits — here, again, I must pass over 
 whole classes with a word. Most of our fruits con- 
 tain only a fraction of 1 per cent, of albumens, 
 and are generally equivalent to water with some 
 sugar and salts. These salts, as a rule, may be 
 considered as alkalies, for though they are often 
 present in the form of acid tartrate of potash, 
 which reddens litmus and acts as an acid when 
 first swallowed, their effect on the blood and urine 
 
60 DIET AKD POOD — CHAPTBB III 
 
 of a whole day is that of an alkali, diminishing the 
 acidity of the urine and probably increasing the 
 alkalinity of the blood (see " Uric Acid," p. 715). 
 
 Many acid fruits, however, act as acids, at leasf 
 for the first few hours after they are swallowed, 
 and thus stimulate (in the way previously ex- 
 plained in reference to fig. 5) nutrition, digestion 
 and the production of force and urea. Almost 
 everyone, I suppose, who has gone in for athletics, 
 knows the reviving effect of a mouthful of lemon, 
 which is no doubt due to its action as an acid, 
 but even lemon has little or no effect on the 
 acidity of twenty-four hours' urine. 
 
 In the same way acid fruits taken in any con- 
 siderable quantity with breakfast, and unbalanced 
 by potatoes, influence very decidedly the large 
 morning excretion of uric acid, and so diminish 
 the excretion of that substance for the whole day 
 (see "Uric Acid," fig. 53 and p. 540). Therefore, 
 sufferers from the arthritic group should take no 
 fruit or jam at breakfast, but should take some 
 potato instead, and those who suffer from an 
 ailment of the circulation group should not take 
 much fruit at this meal, or should balance it with 
 an equal quantity of potato. 
 
 Garden, fruits generally may be regarded as in- 
 creasing the bulk of the day's food without adding 
 much to its albumen values ; but they contribute 
 a useful supply of water, some sugar and some 
 useful salts. 
 
FOODS AVAILABLE 61 
 
 Still, taking the fruit of an ordinary day and 
 deducting stones, skins and stalks, iu fact, weigh- 
 ing only the parts eaten, one would probably not 
 be far wrong if one reckoned them as containing 
 about 2 per cent, of albumens. 
 
 Dried and foreign fruits are in the original con- 
 dition very similar to those above considered, but 
 when a large part of their water has been removed 
 by drying, the relative albumen value is, of course, 
 increased. Such things as figs, dates and various 
 kinds of plums and raisins, when eaten in con- 
 siderable quantity, make an appreciable addition to 
 the day's albumens, and those that contain acids 
 or acid salts also act more powerfully as acids 
 when condensed by drying. 
 
 In this country, however, those who live seden- 
 tary lives often do better not to touch fruit from 
 the end of October to the beginning of April, for 
 there is then practically no fruit in season; and fruit 
 out of season, or from foreign countries, is not a 
 natural food unless the summer climate is artificially 
 produced, i.e., by warm clothing, very warm houses 
 and much active exercise, attended by perspiration. 
 For those who do these things, a little fruit may be 
 continued all the winter, but even for them, the 
 colder the weather and the more they are exposed 
 to it, the less fruit should be taken. 
 
 This does not, of course, apply to nuts, which do 
 not contain acid, and though grown in this country 
 
62 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER III 
 
 will keep much better than fruit through the 
 winter. 
 
 Looking at these groups of foods, I conclude 
 this part of the subject by saying that it is possible 
 to live on a d^'et which includes some of each of 
 these groups in its daily routine ; that it is pos- 
 sible to live on group (1), milk and its products 
 alone ; that it is also possible to live on all the rest, 
 excluding milk and animal products entirely, and 
 relying chiefly on (2), (3) and (6), cereals, dried 
 fruits and nuts, for the necessary albumens ; but 
 that it is not possible to live on (4) and (5), garden 
 vegetables and fruits, and generally in this country 
 not on (6) dried fruits alone. 
 
 Those who wish to make fruits and vegetables 
 a large part of their fare can do so by taking con- 
 siderable quantities of milk and cheese to make 
 up the required albumen (see Table III.), but it is 
 impossible to live on garden vegetables and fruits 
 unless this is done, and the nations making much 
 use of fruit generally add to it a considerable 
 quantity of milk or cheese. 
 
 If man is to be regarded, as I believe he should 
 be, as a frugivorous animal (see figs. 6 and 7), nuts 
 and fruit are probably his most natural diet ; nearly 
 three-quarters of the required albumens being in 
 this case obtained from the nuts. 
 
 It is, however, comparatively rare for any one to 
 be able to take this diet who has injured both 
 
FOODS AVAILABLE 63 
 
 teeth and digestive organs by years of wrong food. 
 Nevertheless, it is an ideal to be aimed at, and all 
 should try how nearly they can attain it. Here, 
 again, the milk and cheese can be slowly diminished 
 as the nuts are increased. 
 
 Nuts may, perhaps, be arranged in order of diges- 
 tibility somewhat as follows, and most of them 
 can be rendered more suitable for weak digestions 
 by cooking : — 
 
 Chestnuts .. 
 
 10 % 
 
 of albumens 
 
 (43 grs. per oz.). 
 
 Pine kernels 
 
 .. 15-30 ,, 
 
 
 
 Walnuts . . 
 
 16 „ 
 
 
 (68 „ „ 
 
 Hazelnuts.. 
 
 16 „ 
 
 
 (68 „ „ 
 
 Brazil nuts 
 
 17 „ 
 
 
 (73 „ „ 
 
 Almonds . . 
 
 21 „ 
 
 
 (90 „ „ 
 
 The object of all these forms of diet is to swallow 
 as little uric acid as possible ; and by this means I 
 have reduced my own uric acid turnover from about 
 20 grs. per day to a little over 10 grs. per day; 
 with the result that I am now practically free from 
 the " diseases " under which I formerly suffered. 
 
 As regards the uric-acid-free foods, choose those 
 which suit you best and take the proper quantity, 
 and this advice may be almost condensed into the 
 three words, " live on bread," for bread and cereal 
 foods are those which best suit the majority ; they 
 are also the cheapest and most easily obtainable ; 
 though I should say "live on nuts'.' to those who 
 have any chance of being able to do it, and some 
 persons who cannot do this- at first may be able to, 
 after some years on the diet. 
 
64 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 Values of Foods in Albumen and Ubea. Quan- 
 tities Eequiebd. Diet of Training and 
 Athletics. 
 
 In considering the value of foods and the quan- 
 tities required, and in apportioning these into 
 special diets, it is convenient to treat of diets as 
 they are required for ordinary conditions of life, 
 for special training and exercise, or for the treat- 
 ment of slight departures from normal health, 
 such as obesity and some minor alterations of 
 function. 
 
 We have already seen in chapter i. that the body 
 weight in pounds multiplied by 9 gives the mini- 
 mum amount of albumens required for a sedentary 
 life, and by 10 or 10"5 that required for an active 
 life, such as that of an out-door labourer. 
 
 If v/e take an active man of 140 lbs., and apply 
 these rules, vv^e find that he requires 1,400 grains of 
 albumen per day, which will produce about 466 
 grains of urea per day when completely digested 
 and metabolised. 
 
 With regard to urea, I may say that the per- 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 65 
 
 centages of albumen values to be given in tbe diet 
 tables that follow, have been found by practical 
 trial to be very close to the truth. For though 
 on a weighed diet continued from day to day, urea 
 will be one day below and another above the 
 quantity calculated from the albumen values of 
 those foods — when taken over days or weeks, these 
 fluctuations tend to balance each other, and over 
 such a period tbe urea calculated from the albu- 
 mens generally comes very close indeed to the urea 
 found. 
 
 The fluctuations no doubt arise from variations 
 in the time of digestion of foods used, as the 
 digestion and absorption of a food taken one day 
 is not necessarily concluded in time for the twenty- 
 four hours' division of the urine ; and again, when 
 albumens have been absorbed, they may, as we 
 have seen reason to believe, remain either in the 
 blood or the tissues as a reserve of force till a 
 special call for force production and activity is 
 made (see fig. 1 and remarks upon it ; also " Uric 
 Acid," p. 373). 
 
 But when allowance is made for these causes of 
 variation, the values to be given are, I believe, quite 
 sufficiently accurate for our practical purposes. 
 
 The albumens required for this man of 140 lbs. 
 can be got from : — 
 
66 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 Table I. 
 13 0Z8. of bread 8 per cent, of albumens (=34 grs. per oz.) = 442 grs. 
 
 2 pints of milk 3 „ ,, (= 13 „ ,, ) = 525 „ 
 
 IJ ozs. of cheese 33 „ „ ( = 140 ,, „ ) = 210 „ 
 
 2ozs. ofnuts 16 „ „ (= 68 „ „ ) = 136 „ 
 11 ozs. fruit and vegetables, 
 
 say i to 2 „ „ (= 8 „ „ )= 87 „ 
 
 1,400 
 
 It is obvious that such a diet list may be varied 
 greatly in many directions, and that such varia- 
 tions may be used as temporary changes or per- 
 manent diets, according to taste, habits, cost, 
 facility for preparation and other concomitant 
 conditions. 
 
 For those who do not do well on, or like much 
 fluid, the milk can be reduced to 1 pint per day 
 if the cheese is increased to 3^ ozs. ; others, again, 
 may be able to iucrease bread or bread stuffs to 
 16 ozs., which would enable them to reduce the 
 milk to 1 pint or cut out the cheese entirely, and 
 some may take still more bread up to 24 ozs. 
 
 Those who do not like or cannot digest nuts in 
 any form or kind may leave them out, slightly 
 increasing the bread, milk, or cheese. 
 
 It should be remembered that almonds are to be 
 obtained at all times, and that pounded almonds 
 can be made into cakes or biscuits which are 
 much liked, and form a favourite top dressing for 
 many cakes. Chestnut flour can also be had and 
 used in similar ways. 
 
 Nuts have the further advantage, common to 
 many substances that leave undigested residues, of 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 
 
 67 
 
 tending to prevent or relieve constipation ; in some 
 persons, however, they, in common vfith other sub- 
 stances leaving undigested particles, may cause 
 intestinal irritation, giving rise to papular and other 
 slight skin eruptions. 
 
 I would here refer to what I have already said 
 about indigestible substances on p. 17, for while in 
 some people nuts relieve dyspepsia by putting an 
 end to the constipation to which it was due, if given 
 to those who have suffered from gouty or other 
 intestinal irritation (with or without diarrhoea), they 
 may increase irritation and intensify its evil effects, 
 such as malnutrition and anaemia, thus paving the 
 way for still more terrible enemies, among which 
 tubercle may be mentioned. 
 
 When, in the case of beginners, nuts do cause a 
 little intestinal irritation, the best treatment is a 
 prompt dose of ol. ricini. 
 
 Other persons may be able to increase bread, 
 biscuits and puddings, and thus arrive at a diet in 
 which there is no milk or cheese at all, as — 
 
 
 
 Table 
 
 II. 
 
 
 
 n ozs. ot bread 
 
 S 
 
 per cent. 
 
 albumen.? (34 grs 
 
 per oz. 
 
 = 374 grs. 
 
 12 ozs. of biscuit 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 (43 „ 
 
 
 = 518 „ 
 
 2 ozs, of rice 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 (34 „ 
 
 
 = 68 „ 
 
 2 ozs. of macaroni 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 (47 „ 
 
 
 = 95 „ 
 
 10 ozs. of potatoes 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 (S „ 
 
 
 = 82 „ 
 
 7 ozs. of fruit 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 (S ., 
 
 
 = 61 „ 
 
 3 ozs. of nuts 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 (68 „ 
 
 !! 
 
 = 204 „ 
 
 1,400 
 
 This is a bulky allowance, much too bulky for 
 those accustomed to a concentrated meat diet ; but 
 
68 DIET AND FOOD— CHAPTBE IV 
 
 when they take Table I. as a transition stage, 
 nearly everyone will be able to arrive at Table II., 
 as they will probably find that as they give up 
 milk and cheese their power of eating bread stuffs 
 increases. 
 
 This bread stuff diet is that of the Japanese and 
 Chinese, and one which gives very great variety 
 in foods, for there are many kinds of breads, almost 
 endless kinds of biscuits, and for the rice and 
 macaroni can be substituted a long list of various 
 meals and pudding stuffs. (See previous remarks 
 about breads, p. 54.) 
 
 In every change of diet we must see that the 
 new food is sufficient in quantity and satisfactorily 
 digested by the individual in question, and this 
 can only be done by making alterations very slowly, 
 one meal at a time, and watching and testing the 
 digestibility of each new food as it comes to be 
 used. 
 
 For this purpose I am in the habit of advising 
 that only one meal should be altered at a time, 
 and that each meal should be watched for, say, 
 seven, ten, or fourteen days, and regarded as quite 
 satisfactory as to quantity, quality, digestibility, 
 and resulting strength and power for work, before 
 the next meal is taken in hand, thus : — 
 
 1st stage. 
 
 Give up tea, coffee and meat soups. 
 
 Beplaoe by milk, milk and water, soups made with milk, &o, 
 
VALUES OP FOODS 69 
 
 2»td Stage. — Alter Bkbakfast. 
 
 Leave out bacon, egg, or fish. 
 
 Replace by au increase ol toast, biscuits and bread stuffs, 
 aud half to three-quarters of a pint of milk. 
 3rd Stage. — Alieb Luhch. 
 
 Leave out fish, meat, fowl, or game. 
 
 Replace by au increase of toast, biscuits, bread stuffs, and 
 puddings, half a pint of milk and 1 oz. of cheese. 
 
 ilh Stage. — Alteb Dinnbb. 
 
 Leave out fish, meat, fowl, or game. 
 
 Replace by au increase of toast, biscuits, bread stuffs and 
 puddings, a cheese dish and half a pint of milk. 
 
 Follow this scheme out stage by stage, making each complete 
 and satifactory before the next is begun. 
 
 Where difficulties are met with, one food after 
 another should be tried and tested till the best 
 results are obtained ; and no matter how slowly 
 they have to go, beginners must always refuse 
 to move the second foot till the first is firmly 
 planted. 
 
 In cases where it is of extreme importance that 
 there shall be no failure of strength and nutrition 
 oh the new diet, as, for instance, where there is 
 either tubercle in the family, or its onset appears 
 to threaten the individual in question, it is well 
 to take the precaution of estimating the urea for a 
 few days on the ordinary diet, and then to supply 
 albumens on the new diet in accordance with the 
 results obtained. 
 
 Thus, if the average excretion of urea on four, 
 five, or six days, either consecutive or taken at 
 random, is 450 grs., we must supply 450 x 3 = 
 
70 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 1,350 grs. of albumen per day on the new diet ; but 
 if the patient has had a bad appetite on the old 
 diet so that the average urea is below the physio- 
 logical level of 3 grs. per pound of body weight per 
 day, then we must go by the body weight (giving a 
 physiological allowance of urea and albumen), and 
 not by the urea found. 
 
 If tubercle is actually present, and feeding up 
 is indicated, far more than the physiological allow- 
 ance of albumens should be given, and the patient 
 stuffed with food to any extent that is possible, as 
 4 pints of milk, 16 ozs. of bread stuffs and 4 ozs. 
 of cheese in many shapes and forms, with butter 
 and cream ad lib. It is certainly no harder to 
 overfeed a patient on this diet than on one of flesh, 
 indeed it is often much easier, and, as I have said 
 in " Uric Acid " (p. 438), much less dangerous. 
 
 A further modification of such a diet, and one 
 that is sometimes convenient if only because it 
 entails almost no labour for preparation and cook- 
 ing, is that consisting of milk and cheese, nuts, 
 fruit and vegetables, thus : — 
 
 6 ozs. of nuts 
 2 J ozs, of cheese 
 1^ pints of milk 
 16 ozs, of potatoes 
 15 ozs, of fruit 
 
 Table III. 
 
 16 per cent, of albumens (= ('8 grs, per 
 33 „ „ ( = 140 „ 
 
 3 „ ,. (= 13 „ 
 
 2 „ „ (= 8 „ 
 
 2 „ „ (= 8 „ 
 
 = 408 grs, 
 = 361 ,, 
 = 393 •• 
 = 128 „ 
 = 120 „ 
 
 1,400 
 
 I may say that I have several times taken the 
 above diet of cheese, milk, potatoes, nuts and fruit 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 71 
 
 for some months with very good results, and should 
 recommend it for those who suffer from dyspepsia 
 when on cereal foods and bread, or as a change 
 from these. It is convenient for people who desire 
 for a time, either at home or while travelling, to 
 be almost independent of cooking, because except 
 for potatoes, and occasionally a little stewed fruit, 
 almost no cooking is required, and raw fresh fruit 
 and vegetables can be substituted for potatoes and 
 cooked fruit if necessary. 
 
 It is also a diet that does pretty well for children, 
 who are often fond of nuts, fruit and vegetables; 
 and as they would rarely require more than some 
 1,200 grs. of albumen, the cheese could be reduced 
 to 1 oz. or less in their case. 
 
 The nuts, as a rule, should be ground in a mill 
 or pounded in a mortar, or both, before use, and 
 those not accustomed to them should begin with the 
 more digestible kinds. In winter, potatoes should 
 be increased and fruit considerably diminished or 
 left out. 
 
 As a matter of fact, some people live on nuts, 
 or even one kind of nut, such as almonds, almost 
 entirely. Others seem to do well on nuts and 
 cheese ; others, again, will live largely on bread stuffs, 
 as in Table II., and others may do well and 
 like a mixture of all the available foods, as in 
 Table I. Again, there are whole nations living 
 chiefly on rice, macaroni, or on chestnuts or other 
 
72 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 nuts, and some of these foods are taken either 
 cooked or raw. 
 
 Such are some of the chief modifications of the 
 diet, but it can be altered in an almost endless 
 variety of ways, and those to whom few foods come 
 amiss and who have good digestion, can have a 
 different diet, or at least a considerable change of 
 food, every week throughout the year. 
 
 There are some people, however, who do not take 
 kindly to any of these foods and who are in a very 
 poor way, feeble and dyspeptic ; with these any of 
 the above modifications of diet may be difficult, 
 and for a time even impossible. 
 
 They cannot drink milk or greatly dislike it ; 
 they cannot digest cheese, and can eat but little 
 bread, and so on through the whole list ; there is 
 practically nothing but meat, fish and eggs which 
 they like, and there is but a poor appetite even for 
 these. 
 
 With such people it is best, I think, to improve 
 the general health, and get up an appetite by tonics 
 and change of air before altering the food at all, 
 and the meals, if too frequent, may be spaced and 
 reduced to three, two, or even one in the day. 
 
 Or in some cases food may be altogether withheld 
 for some days till there is a decided appetite, as 
 recommended by Dr. Dewey (previous reference), 
 and when a good appetite for ordinary food appears, 
 some of the flesh food of the old diet may be 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 73 
 
 gradually replaced by equivalent value in bread, 
 milk, or cheese, and one meal at a time can be 
 changed, v^ith such interval between the changes 
 as may be required. 
 
 To put a debilitated and dyspeptic patient sud- 
 • denly on a diet which is not relished, and may not 
 be digested, is, I think, at best rash, and may even 
 be somewhat dangerous. 
 
 I believe that with care, patience and deter- 
 mination, these initial difficulties can generally be 
 overcome, especially when the fear of serious or 
 painful disease furnishes some vim a tergo. 
 
 But even in those who get over the initial diffi- 
 culties, dyspepsia may now and then cause more 
 or less decided trouble, and I, therefore, mention 
 shortly what have appeared to me to be the chief 
 causes. 
 
 Too much albumen, especially in the form of 
 milk and cheese, to which the patient is not 
 accustomed. Bread is a better and more reliable 
 food, and its bulk generally prevents its being taken 
 in too large a quantity. 
 
 I say this without prejudice to my previous 
 remarks in favour of milk and cheese, for practically 
 everyone has to find out for themselves the form of 
 uric-acid-free diet that suits them best. 
 
 Too great bulk of food (fruit and vegetables), 
 especially in those accustomed to foods of small 
 bulk, such as meat, fish and eggs. 
 
74 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 For this trouble, food may be reduced, at least for 
 a time, to little besides milk, cheese, nuts, and bread 
 stuffs, the more nourishing and important foods ; 
 and vegetables and fruit should be taken only after 
 the former have been eaten in sufficient quantities. 
 
 Too much fluid. It should, I think, be a rule 
 with all who go on these diets never to drink 
 when not thirsty, for those who do so tend to have 
 a dilute and watery condition of the blood, and this 
 entails a more or less dilute and watery condition 
 of the digestive secretions poured out from the 
 blood. 
 
 Such secretions will act slowly and inefficiently, 
 and more or less fermentation and putrefaction 
 will, meanwhile, be going on in the food masses, 
 resulting in the formation of gases, acids, and de- 
 composition products. 
 
 . Too much sloppy and puUaceous food, especially 
 starchy food. This I have already referred to, in 
 pointing out the importance of taking starchy foods 
 as dry as possible. For if such foods are sodden 
 with fluid, the salivary digestive secretion obviously 
 cannot very easily get into contact with its starchy 
 particles, or can only do so slowly and after more 
 or less dilution. 
 
 It is certainly a fact that, under some conditions, 
 the disuse of bread and milk, and milky puddings, 
 and their replacement by toast, biscuits and rusks, 
 eaten dry or with a little butter (the milk being 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 75 
 
 taken only apart from or after them), may make 
 all the difference between troublesome flatulent 
 dyspepsia, distention and discomfort, and their 
 absence. 
 
 It is for these reasons that it is often advisable 
 not to take more milk than one and a half pints 
 in the day, especially in cold weather, and when 
 sedentary ; and also not to mix that milk with 
 starchy foods into slops, porridges and puddings. 
 Those who suffer from flatulent dyspepsia should 
 carefully bear these points in mind. 
 
 There is no harm in drinking when thirsty, for 
 thirst means that the blood is concentrated and in 
 want of fluid, and Nature will not ask for more 
 than she wants, but there may be great harm in 
 taking fluid by rule or order, and aparb from thirst ; 
 and it may even make all the difference between 
 success and failure with the diet. On a meat diet 
 it is possibly necessary to drink considerable quan- 
 tities of fluid to wash out the poison, though I 
 have mentioned in " Uric Acid " some facts which 
 throw considerable doubts on its utility ; but when 
 uric acid is not swallowed it need not be washed 
 out, and to take excess of fluid not only causes 
 dyspepsia, as above mentioned, but may raise the 
 blood pressure, thus making all high blood pressure 
 diseases worse, and even dilating the heart as well 
 as the stomach. In fact, I regard the washing-out 
 ideSk as one of the most harmful and unphysio- 
 
76 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 logical suggestions ever made in clinical medicine ; 
 the water practically never increases the elimination 
 of uric acid, but frequently and greatly increases 
 the circulation trouble and suffering. 
 
 Deficient mastication, especially in the case of 
 bread staffs, which are largely digested by mixing 
 with the saliva, is au undoubted cause of some 
 dyspepsia, and Mr. Horace Fletcher has suggested 
 in an interesting little book, " Glutton or Epi- 
 cure," ^ that we should all gain by masticating our 
 food till it ceases to taste, swallowing more or less 
 unconsciously the fluid parts and rejecting those 
 bard parts that become tasteless before they are 
 fluid. 
 
 There is undoubtedly sound physiology behind 
 this suggestion, and though I see no proof that it 
 has as yet enabled any one to live on less than the 
 physiological allowance of albumens, I believe it 
 does something to cheat the intestinal 'aajcrobes, 
 lessen putrefaction and diminish the- 'odou^^of the 
 faeces ; thus rendering digestion more-eom^plek^ T,nd 
 efficient. 
 
 Too frequent food. It is a remarkable fact that 
 those who take meat require to be fed more fre- 
 quently than those who live largely on cereals ; and 
 this is due, as already mentioned, to the fact that 
 meat is a stimulant quickly digested, absorbed and 
 
 ' Herbert S. Stone and Co., Chicago and New York, 1899. 
 
VALUES OP FOODS 77 
 
 worked off ; while cereal food is more slowly assimi- 
 lated, and gives over a series of hours a constant 
 steady supply of albumen, force and urea. 
 
 But on relinquishing meat, frequent feeding need 
 not be continued, and those who continue it will 
 be more liable to dyspepsia than those who are 
 content with two or, at most, three meals a day. 
 
 I frequently see people who take as many as six 
 to seven meals in the twenty-four hours, that is to 
 say, they take three or four chief meals and two 
 or three intermediate meals of milk, &c., between 
 these. They learned this habit on the old diet, 
 and continue it on the new, under the impression 
 that much food is necessary to maintain strength, 
 but the common result of such overfeeding is 
 dyspepsia and debility. 
 
 The preservatives mixed with milk may un- 
 doubtedly be another cause of dyspepsia. These 
 have possibly but little influence when it is only 
 taken in small quantity in tea, and yet may produce 
 more or less serious effects in those who drink it in 
 the larger quantities advised in the tables of this 
 book. 
 
 I have made some experiments with borax myself, 
 and the utmost dose I could take, even for a short 
 time, without producing symptoms of gastro-intes- 
 tinal dyspepsia, was 30 grs. in the day. 
 
 I therefore advise those who can eliminate other 
 causes, and yet find dyspepsia associated with milk 
 
78 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 or any foods with which preservatives are mixed, 
 to make a special effort to obtain these foods free 
 from such preservatives, and notice whether the 
 symptoms then subside. 
 
 Another cause of flatulence and dyspepsia espe- 
 cially affecting the digestion of bread stuffs, is 
 excess of acid or deficiency of alkali in the intestines 
 or their digestive secretions. The cause of this 
 may be the taking of excess of acids in such things 
 as fruit, fruit juices, jams, and acid drinks, or it may 
 arise from deficient excretion of acids from the 
 body, as in those who check the excretion of per- 
 spiration from the body by exposing themselves to 
 cold with insufficient clothing. 
 
 Some who suffer from flatulence are unable 
 to take acid fruit, or even any fruit at all with 
 their bread stuffs, but they get on much better if 
 they take potatoes, if they clothe themselves very 
 warmly, and if they take occasional doses of alkali, 
 such as bicarbonate of soda. 
 
 Some must reject fruit while they are seden- 
 tary and in cold weather, but can take it in hot 
 weather or while taking much exercise and getting 
 warm; and it is a good rule for most people to 
 increase potato in cold and fruit in warm weather, 
 in fact, to eat things in season. 
 
 In all these diets, butter and oil may be freely 
 taken with cereals and vegetables ; they are merely 
 left out of the Tables because they contain no 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 79 
 
 albumen or nitrogen, but these and the starches 
 are amply provided for in the diets. 
 
 It is, "I think, common experience that butter and 
 oil can be much more freely taken on a meat-free 
 diet than on one containing flesh, and it is at least 
 probable that the influence of uric acid in the blood, 
 hindering, as it does, circulation, digestion, meta- 
 bolism and combustion, has something to do with 
 this. Certainly the digestive, hepatic, and other 
 disturbances that accompany bilious attacks and 
 sick headaches are due to the circulation effects of 
 uric acid, and disappear with this cause. 
 
 Though the action of butter and oil in the 
 production of force is probably indirect, and for 
 the most part unimportant, they are amply pro- 
 vided for, and the assimilation and metabolism 
 of fat is distinctly facilitated when it forms part 
 of a uric-acid-free diet. 
 
 I may note in passing that the diet of milk, 
 cheese, potatoes, nuts and fruit is that which 
 seemed to best keep the urine clear and free from 
 deposits of urates or red sand ; and this was no 
 doubt due to the amount of alkali in the potatoes 
 and of similar salts in the fruit, as well as to the 
 absence from milk and cheese of salts, such as 
 those contained in meat and cereals, which tend 
 to raise the acidity of the urine. 
 
 Thus I have pointed out in "Uric Acid" that 
 the ratio of acid excreted in the urine to urea 
 
80 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 excreted at the same time is, on a diet contain- 
 ing some fish and eggs, l-6'3, i.e., 1 gr. of acid 
 to 6"3 grs. of urea. While on a diet such as 
 that in Tables I. and II. it is 1-7, or between 1-7 
 and 1-8, and on a diet such as that in Table III. 
 it tends to be about 1-9, or between 1-9 and 1-10, 
 and with this tbe urine is generally quite clear. 
 
 It will be understood from what I have said in 
 " Uric Acid " that this is not so much a matter of 
 the quantity of uric acid excreted, as of its solu- 
 biHty in the urine after excretion, though no doubt 
 both are affected by acidity, and a deposit of red 
 sand in the urine is the index of deficient rather 
 than (as is so commonly supposed) of excessive 
 excretion from the body. 
 
 But it may be of some interest to those who 
 are worried about these deposits in the urine of 
 their patients to know that by such diet as the 
 above, which diminishes the relative acidity of the 
 urine, they can be prevented. Those also who are' 
 very sedentary should be careful (especially in cold 
 weather) to take no more albumens than are 
 required for strength and nutrition, as acidity rises 
 with urea, and under these conditions it may suffice 
 for a time if body weight is multiplied by 8 in place 
 of 9. With reference to the relatively high acidity 
 of the urine with the diets in Tables I. and II., I 
 think that some part of this must be credited to 
 the bread and cereal foods which are well repre- 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 81 
 
 sented in these Tables, but are completely absent 
 in Table III. ; for if we look at the analysis of a 
 cereal, such as barley, we find that it appears to 
 contain a considerable excess of acids. 
 
 Thus I see^ that the ash of barley contains 34-9 
 per cent, of potash, soda, lime and magnesia, and 
 61-6 per cent, of phosphoric, sulphuric, and soluble 
 silicic acids, and if wheat and oats have any similar 
 excess this will easily account for the relatively high 
 acidity of the urine on the diets of which they form 
 a part. 
 
 These cereals often tend decidedly to raise the 
 acidity of the urine, and when taken in quantity 
 over a length of time, especially in cold weather, 
 they may not only do this, but also diminish the 
 alkalinity of the blood ; hence they tend to cause 
 some retention of uric acid in the body, and, acting 
 with other causes, may even lead towards gout and 
 rheumatism. 
 
 Thus horses suffer considerably from rheumatism 
 probably when given too much dry cereal and too 
 little fresh vegetable ; they also are very often 
 exposed to cold and wet, and all these things 
 tend to diminish alkalinity of blood. 
 
 Arthritis, both in men and horses, can be treated 
 by increasing and maintaining the alkalinity of 
 the blood. This may be done by eating vegetables 
 
 ' In "A Text-book of the Science of Brewing," Moritz and 
 Morris. 1891. P. 75. 
 6 
 
82 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 that contain alkali, such as potatoes, and by dimin- 
 ishing the albumens taken till they are well within 
 physiological limits, for diminution of albumens 
 diminishes the formation of acids in the body, and 
 it is the overfed, both among children and horses, 
 that suffer most from rheumatism. Fond and 
 foolish mothers imagine that children must be fed 
 up ; but a little wholesome starvation, with plenty 
 of vegetables, is much more likely to prevent 
 the dreaded disease ; most children who suffer are 
 poisoned with uric-acid-containing foods in addition 
 to being overfed, and horses in hard exercise often 
 get from two to four pounds of beans a day, 
 which means an introduction of from 30-60 grs. 
 of xanthin. 
 
 With reference to pulses (peas, beans, lentils and 
 pea-nuts), it will have been noticed that they are 
 now omitted in the tables of foods, and this is due 
 to the fact (of which I have given full details 
 in " Uric Acid," p. 856, and fig. 75) that I found 
 out they actually contain even more xanthin than 
 many kinds of animal flesh, and are, therefore, 
 like flesh and alkaloid-containing vegetable sub- 
 stances, such as cashew nuts, asparagus^ and 
 mushrooms, to be regarded as poisonous. 
 
 I should now be inclined to consider that the 
 
 ' With regard to asparagus, see paper on " The Human Body 
 , as an Analytical Laboratory " in the British Medical Journal, 
 October, 1901. 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 83 
 
 rheumatism met with among vegetarian natives 
 of India is not so much due (as I previously sug- 
 gested) to excess of cereals with deficiency of 
 fresh fruits and vegetables, and exposure, to cold 
 at night, &c. (as in the case of horses), though no 
 doubt all these things have some contributory 
 effects, but rather to direct and considerable intro- 
 duction of uric acid or xanthin in the pulse foods 
 which so many natives use to a large extent. 
 
 I believe it will appear, on investigation, that in 
 those parts of India where rice and fresh veget- 
 able substances form the staple foods, not only 
 rheumatism but uric acid diseases generally are 
 little known, whereas in those parts where pulses 
 are largely consumed they are common — almost 
 universal. 
 
 I have noticed, much to my astonishment, a 
 passage in " Human Physiology," by J. H. Eay- 
 mond (W. B. Sanders, London, p. 128), in which 
 he quotes from Dr. Alanus, a vegetarian, the asser- 
 tion that a vegetarian diet causes atheromatous 
 degeneration of the arteries. 
 
 In the passage referred to, some very sweeping 
 conclusions are drawn from very obscure premisses. 
 
 The teaching of pathology shows, I believe, quite 
 clearly, that atheroma of the vessels is always asso- 
 ciated with pressure and strain, and of late years 
 I have come to regard uric acid as at least the 
 chief cause of such vascular pressure and strain. 
 
84 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTEB IV 
 
 Now in the quotation above mentioned vegetable 
 foods are spoken of in the mass, and no attempt 
 is made to distinguish between such useful foods 
 as the bread stuffs and such poisons as the pulses, 
 so that it is at least open to us to suspect that 
 the terrible results credited most loosely and in- 
 accurately to vegetarian foods in general, are really 
 due to the uric acid contained in the pulses, mush- 
 rooms, asparagus, tea, coffee, &c., which are still 
 constantly taken by almost all vegetarians. 
 
 In one passage, however, it is said that " The 
 naval surgeon, Treille, has seen numerous cases of 
 atheromatous degeneration in Bombay and Cal- 
 cutta, where many people live exclusively on rice." 
 
 I believe a careful investigation would show that 
 there are really no such people, for my enquiries 
 point to the probability that all natives of these 
 places add other vegetables to their rice, and only 
 too often the cheap and poisonous dal. In my 
 own experience some of the most terrible cases 
 of high blood pressure and vascular degeneration 
 I have ever seen have been in dal-consuming 
 natives of these Indian provinces. 
 
 The suggestion also made that vegetable foods 
 cause chalky degeneration of the arteries by intro- 
 ducing mineral salts into the blood, is one of the 
 most puerile bits of physiology it has ever been 
 my lot to meet with. How terrible, then, must 
 be the fate of those who pay frequent visits to 
 
VALUES OF POODS 85 
 
 the mineral spas of Europe, especially to those, 
 too numerous to mention, which are rich in lime 
 salts ? 
 
 I must refer those interested in these points to 
 what I have said on the matter in " Uric Acid," 
 p. 218, et seq., this not being a work on pathology; 
 but bread- eaters have, in my opinion, no reason 
 to frighten themselves over any such physiology, 
 though I should quite agree that nuLs are a better 
 and more natural food. 
 
 A similar investigation in Australia and New 
 Zealand would, I believe, trace to the excessive use 
 of flesh and tea an equally long array of serious or 
 deadly diseases, and an almost equal number of 
 mental or moral defects, which only a complete 
 reversal of their present diet habits will render 
 visible by contrast. 
 
 In this country, also, I should attribute to the 
 effects of flesh and tea the all-pervading anaemia, 
 which, as seen in London, cannot be due. to want 
 of oxygen, since it is equally to be seen in country 
 towns of only half a mile radius ; in the same 
 way many mental and moral obliquities are no 
 doubt due to the obstructed circulation of poor 
 blood loaded with these poisons (see "Uric Acid," 
 pp. 401 and 873). 
 
 These diseases have crept over us so gradually 
 that we quite fail to recognise the full extent of our 
 loss ; and even in my own case I should formerly 
 
86 
 
 DIET AKD FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 have said that, apart from headaches, I had good 
 mental and bodily health on meat and tea, because 
 
 Side view 
 
 Biting edges 
 
 Side view 
 
 Biting 
 surface 
 
 Side view 
 
 Biting 
 surface 
 
 a 
 a 
 
 } 1 2 
 o 
 
 > 2 .-i 
 
 o 
 
 RHighlty. 
 
 Fio. 6. — ^Teeth of a Carnivore, a Man, and a Frugivore, 
 for comparison. 
 
 I knew no better ; whereas I should now say I 
 have in both directions 50 per cent, better health 
 without them. 
 
VALL'ES OF FOODS 
 
 87 
 
 I have so often been asked about the structure 
 of man's teeth in relation to his diet, and such 
 great and widespread ignorance of comparative 
 anatomy has been shown by questioners, that I 
 
 Fig. 7. — Photograph of the impressions made by the 
 same Teeth ou a piece of modelling wax. 
 
 now give two figures, which I shall, to a large 
 extent, leave to speak for themselves. 
 
 Fig. 6 shows that the crown of the carnivorous 
 tooth is a knife edge, while that of the frugivorous 
 tooth is a surface, and fig. 7 shows the impression 
 
88 DIET AND POOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 which each set of teeth makes on a piece of model- 
 ling wax, and here again we see that the carni- 
 vore's impression is a cut or gash, the dark central 
 parts of the impression (1) being the deep incisions 
 made by the cutting edges and points of (1) in fig. 6, 
 while that of the frugivore is a print or impression 
 like that of a seal or stamp. 
 
 I have also referred in " Uric Acid " (p. 83) to 
 the difference between man and {the carnivore with 
 regard to the relation between the excretion of 
 acids and of urea in the urine, and from the facts 
 there given it is evident that human metabolism 
 differs very widely indeed from that of the latter. 
 If we may draw any conclusion from this difference 
 it might be inferred that man would be much more 
 likely to get gout and rheumatism from eating meat 
 than the carnivore from eating what is his natural 
 food. 
 
 In a word, man is provided neither with the 
 teeth to cut flesh, nor the power to hold its 
 poisonous salts in solution and pass them out of 
 his body; whilst the carnivore is provided with 
 these powers to a very considerable extent. 
 
 If man imagines that a few centuries, or even 
 a few hundred centuries, of meat-eating in defiance 
 of Nature have endowed him with any new powers, 
 except, perhaps, those of bearing the resulting 
 disease and degradation, with an ignorance and 
 apathy which are appalling, he deceives himself ; 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 89 
 
 for the record of the teeth shows that human 
 structure has remained unaltered over vast periods 
 of time. 
 
 For the benefit of some who may see mountains 
 of difficulty in details, I will now give an outline 
 of a day's food on the uric-acid-free diet. 
 
 For those in good health three meals a day, 
 breakfast, lunch and dinner, are ample ; some even 
 do better with a light breakfast or none — this 
 latter course being specially indicated where there 
 is little or no appetite for a morning meal (see Dr. 
 Dewey's works, referred to in chapter i.). 
 
 I may say, also, that simple food of not more 
 than two or three kinds at one meal is another 
 secret of health ; and if this seems harsh to those 
 whose day is at present divided between anticipat- 
 ing, preparing their food, and eating it, I must 
 ask them to consider whether such a life is i ^ot 
 the acme of selfish shortsightedness. 
 
 In case they should ever be at a loss what to 
 do with the time and money thus saved from 
 feasting, I would point on the one hand to the 
 mass of unrelieved ignorance, sorrow, and suffer- 
 ing, and on the other to the doors of literature, 
 science and art, which stand open to those fortunate 
 enough to have time to enter them ; and from 
 none of these need any turn aside for want of new 
 kingdoms to conquer. 
 
 Be that as it may, the best health, strength, and 
 
90 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 nutrition are not to be obtained by waste of time 
 and money on elaborate food, for the simplest 
 things are all that are really required and accepted 
 by Nature. 
 
 If we take then, Table I., breakfast (before which, 
 an hour or an hour and a half's work, if possible 
 in the fresh air, is no drawback) may well consist 
 of some rusks or biscuits made into a porridge, 
 with j-f or 1 pint of milk, and this may be followed 
 by some toast or bread (2-3 ozs.) and butter, with 
 or without marmalade or jam. These are the 
 staple foods for breakfast, and should be taken 
 first, and if, when they have been consumed, some 
 appetite still remains, some fresh fruit may be taken, 
 especially in summer and when it is in season. 
 
 I must say, however, that those who are 
 anxious to have a free excretion of uric acid should 
 not take much fruit at breakfast, or should divide 
 their attention between such acid fruits and 
 potatoes (which contain much alkali), so that the 
 alkali may more or less balance the acid. 
 
 As variations of this diet, bread and milk, or 
 biscuit and milk, may be substituted for part of the 
 toast or biscuit at breakfast ; and scones or any 
 other cereal food of equivalent nutrition, value and 
 quantity, may be substituted for them in any de- 
 sired form. In this way it is possible to have a 
 new kind of cereal every morning of the week, or 
 even every morning of the month. 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 91 
 
 These are all homely foods, to be found in nearly 
 every household or nearly every baker's shop, and 
 their cooking, therefore, presents no insuperable 
 difficulties. 
 
 Vegetables and fruits are to be regarded as mere 
 relishes to the foods. Those who like them can take 
 small quantities, but their value as nourishment is 
 hardly worth considering. 
 
 The great rule is to take such as are in season ; 
 and generally vegetables are seasonable in the cold 
 part of the year, and fruits in the warm (see p. 60). 
 In really warm weather and in hot climates fruit can 
 be taken freely, and is often better than a drink of 
 doubtful water. On the other hand, the foods to 
 live upon are nuts, bread, milk and cheese, and of 
 these bread is the one most widely used in this 
 country, and those who cannot take and digest a 
 sufficient quantity of one of its many varieties are 
 indeed unfortunate. 
 
 In these matters of quantity and percentage it is 
 not necessary to be painfully accurate. 
 
 Be certain that about the calculated amount of 
 food is taken by measuring it and weighing it on 
 one day in every month or so. This is only really 
 necessary for beginners, as later on the correct 
 quantity becomes a habit. 
 
 It is sufficient for all purposes to take nuts as 
 containing 16 per cent, of albumen, bread stuffs as 
 8 per cent., cheese as 30 per cent., and milk as 
 3 per cent. 
 
92 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 No doubt there will be variations from these 
 quantities, but they are sufficiently correct for 
 practical purposes, and elaborate tables are not 
 needed ; though it is well to bear in mind that 
 arrowroot and tapioca contain no albumen, and 
 starch also contains none whatever. Manufactured 
 and patent foods of unknown value should, as far 
 as possible, be avoided ; many of them are little 
 short of fraudulent, in their substitution of starch 
 which is almost useless, for albumen which is the 
 support of life. 
 
 It is fortunate that human ingenuity has not yet 
 attained the power of making nuts out of wood or 
 paper, for, were it possible, greed of gain would 
 poison this source of nourishment also. 
 
 Under average commercial conditions the best 
 rule is to get your food first hand from Nature, and 
 as far as possible to know what it is and where it 
 comes from. Grind your own nuts and almonds ; 
 do not buy them ready ground. 
 
 Lunch, which is often with advantage the best 
 meal of the day, can begin with some vegetable 
 soup made with milk ; this may be like ordinary 
 potato soup, the meat or bone boilings sirhply 
 replaced by milk, which is much more nourishing ; 
 or the same preparation may be used with some of 
 the other kinds of vegetable. 
 
 Next course, potatoes, with milk, oil or butter, 
 and the cheese (1^ ozs.) and nuts taken with them. 
 
"VALUES OP FOODS 93 
 
 Several ounces of bread, toast, or biscuit, should 
 also be eaten with the soup and the potatoes and 
 cheese ; the soup and potatoes being the sauces, 
 the bread stuffs, nuts and cheese the foods. 
 
 A dish of rice, macaroni, barley or other cereal 
 may be substituted for part of the bread. 
 
 I look upon good olive oil as a valuable substitute 
 for butter. It is specially nice v^ith vegetables, 
 and may be eaten with many of these, besides the 
 salads for which it has long been used. It is 
 useful also in cooking vegetables, and many get 
 to like it so much that they give up the use of 
 butter; others prefer- it only now and again as a 
 change. It is necessary to get it good and fresh, 
 when it is free from all strong and objectionable 
 taste. 
 
 These are the chief items of nourishment at 
 lunch, and should be taken as a first charge on 
 the appetite; the less nourishing potatoes and 
 garden vegetables must not be allowed to oust the 
 more nourishing cheese, bread and cereals ; the 
 sauces should not encroach on the foods. 
 
 The following experience may illustrate my 
 meaning. One autumn day a party of cyclists 
 were riding, and finding in the middle of the day 
 that it was extremely hot and that there were a 
 large number of blackberries at the side of the 
 road, they spent half an hour in eating the fruit. 
 This was about 12.30 or 1 p.m., and when it came 
 
94 DIET AND'FOOD CHAPTER IV 
 
 to their ordinary lunch time, 2 p.m., none of them 
 had much appetite as they were digesting the 
 blackberries ; the consequence was that a poor 
 lunch was made. 
 
 The blackberries, however, containing very little 
 albumen and the supply at lunch being deficient, at 
 about 5 p.m. they were all short of albumens and 
 force, and had to call a halt for more food to enable 
 them to continue their ride, while, as a rule, no 
 food was required from the 2 p.m. meal till 8 or 
 even 8.30 p.m. This is pretty much what is done 
 by those who fill themselves with the almost 
 valueless vegetables and fruits, leaving the bread, 
 milk and cheese to the last ; they have then but 
 little appetite, and, unless they eat by measure, 
 either do not take enough, or get dyspepsia from 
 excess of bulk. Nuts also should, as a rule, be 
 taken both early in the day (breakfast and lunch) 
 and early in the meal. 
 
 The rest of the meal may consist of milk pudding 
 (to be taken not as a slop, but cooked till it is 
 firm and solid, and not, of course, containing any 
 egg), tart, or stewed fruit, the cereal in the pudding 
 making up for any deficiency in the cereal taken at 
 breakfast. 
 
 If lunch is a good meal eaten with appetite, 
 nothing but a drink of water, or aerated water 
 with fruit juice in the summer, will be required 
 till 7.30 or 8 p.m., when all that remains of the 
 
VALUES OF POODS 95 
 
 milk and bread should be taken with some more 
 potato or other vegetable, butter or oil being always 
 allowed ad lib., except to those who are too stout. 
 
 These may be followed by junket, or stewed fruit 
 with cream (the latter being only equivalent to 
 butter or oil, and the junket taking the place of 
 some of the milk), and these, as usual, by fresh 
 fruits. 
 
 When a meal such as lunch has to be taken out 
 of doors and away from home, the cheese can be 
 made into sandwiches ; either being cut in slices 
 or grated for the purpose, with the addition of 
 pepper or mustard, if liked. 
 
 Similar sandwiches may be made with various 
 vegetables, such as mustard and cress, lettuce, 
 beetroot, cucumber, or tomatoes. 
 
 In this way the chief ingredients of the lunch 
 can be supplied, and milk, aerated waters and fruit 
 will complete it. 
 
 A similar lunch, quickly provided and easily 
 carried, may consist entirely of biscuits, with more 
 or less butter, some nuts, cheese and fruit. 
 
 What I shall say about stimulants, presently, 
 of course applies to all alcoholic beverages ; milk, 
 water, aerated waters and fruit juices are the best 
 drinks ; but cider, when made from the pure juice 
 of fruit, has little in it that need be objected to, 
 and many nice drinks for hot weather can be made 
 from lemons, apples, raspberries, &c. 
 
96 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 Another point is (and this applies to drinks, fruit, 
 vegetables, and all kinds of additional foods), that 
 nothing must be taken that interferes with digestion 
 or upsets the stomach ; otherwise digestion may 
 come to a standstill, there will be no rise of urea 
 as in fig. 1 at 3 p.m., and no increased power of 
 working and force production, no matter how 
 nourishing and rich, in albumens the foods taken 
 may be.^ 
 
 Very acid fruits, tough or sour vegetables, a glass 
 of raw spirits, or a strong pipe or cigar, or an ice 
 after food, in those not accustomed to them, some- 
 times act in this way, and either cause nausea and 
 the entire loss of the meal by vomiting, or at least 
 suspend digestion, the absorption of albumens, and 
 the production of force for some hours, more or 
 less. 
 
 Thus, a boy of 13, out with a shooting party and 
 having lunch with them, was given whisky after it, 
 with the result that he presently brought up his 
 whole meal. The wine had been forgotten, and as 
 it was thought the boy must have something other 
 than pure water with his lunch (crime that such 
 should ever be thought), he was given whisky, to 
 which he was not accustomed, in its place, and this 
 acting as an irritant to the stomach (as shown to a 
 minor degree in " Uric Acid," fig. 67), first stopped 
 digestion and then produced the above result. 
 
 This is, of course, not intended to be a work on 
 
VALUES OP FOODS 97 
 
 cookery, and what I have said above has been with 
 the intention of indicating a few directions in which 
 others may exercise their knowledge and ingenuity, 
 and of removing perhaps some of the worst uncer- 
 tainties from the paths of those whose knowledge 
 lies in different directions. 
 
 Gluten can be made into palatable biscuits by 
 mixing it with half its weight of butter and a 
 quarter of its weight of sugar, though if the gluten 
 is very pure some flour should be added or the 
 biscuits will be too hard ; or gluten may be mixed 
 with any milk pudding, &c., without its presence 
 being obtrusive. 
 
 It is difficult to give exact rules for the feeding 
 of children ; such rules requiring constant revision, 
 since the rate of growth alters considerably with 
 their age. But practically any child who takes 
 Ig- to 2 pints of milk a day, and has the offer 
 of plenty of bread, biscuits, puddings and some 
 dried fruit with a little fresh fruit and vegetable, 
 will not starve. The weight must be watched 
 to ascertain that it rises steadily, and the colour 
 of the gums to see that it remains somewhere 
 about the highest standard by the colour card (see 
 " Uric Acid," chapter xii.). 
 
 Later on, when the child is strong and well 
 nourished on this diet and the teeth are all in 
 place, small quantities of nuts (such as chestnuts, 
 
98 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 walnuts, pine kernels) may be gradually given 
 under close observation. 
 
 As the permanent teeth make their appearance, 
 nuts and fruit can be increased, and milk and 
 bread stuffs gradually diminished, till a diet of nuts, 
 fruit, or in winter vegetable only is attained with 
 the development of the wisdom teeth. 
 
 On this system children begin with milk, they 
 get gradually to a mixed diet of bread stuffs, 
 vegetables and fruit, and eventually to a nut and 
 fruit, or nut and vegetable diet, as the teeth required 
 for these come into place. 
 
 At 13 or 14 a child may be fed largely on nuts, 
 vegetables and fruit, but only using the more 
 digestible nuts, and from 17 onwards might be 
 entirely frugivorous, taking all kinds of nuts, since 
 t,he teeth necessary for their mastication are now 
 available. 
 
 Of course some children may for various reasons 
 do better on nuts and fruit with a little bread and 
 even milk, but all should try to reach the frugivorous 
 diet and be guided by results. 
 
 In all cases the nuts should be ground or pounded 
 to begin with, and only a teaspoonful taken at first 
 to try their effect ; the motions should invariably be 
 watched to see that they are not passed entirely 
 undigested, and the quantities can be increased or 
 diminished according to the result obtained. 
 
 Of course, when we have to do with pathology, 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 99 
 
 where there is, or has been rheumatism of the 
 intestines, appendicitis, colitis, colonic catarrh, 
 mucus disease, &c., it may be unwise to give 
 nuts under any conditions till the gout or rheu- 
 matism has been treated and physiology 're-estab- 
 lished. Generally speaking all invalids, dyspeptics 
 and neurasthenic sufferers must live and eat by 
 rule, for they cannot be trusted to take the proper 
 quantities when the natural exercise is impossible 
 and a healthy appetite unknown. 
 
 With regard to the convenience of these diets 
 when away from home, it is only necessary to ask 
 friends to provide a pint of milk and the offer of 
 cheese twice a day ; for, given 2 pints of milk and 
 2 ozs. of cheese, there is practically certain to be 
 enough bread, cereals, vegetables and fruit in any 
 ordinary diet to make up the rest. 
 
 Indeed, it often seems absurd, considering the 
 very small amount of daily nourishment that really 
 comes from flesh, and remembering how much is 
 (on all diets) already obtained from cereals, veget- 
 ables, milk, nuts and fruit, that people should 
 suffer from so much fear of failure of strength and 
 nutrition in giving up the former source of nourish- 
 ment. If this fear is justified at all, it can only 
 be so by the dense ignorance of the value of foods 
 which is almost universal. 
 
 As regards cost in London, the diet in Tables I. 
 and II. is cheaper, and that in Table III. dearer ; 
 
100 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 in fact, this latter is quite as expensive as an 
 ordinary flesh diet, and may easily be made more 
 so by using fruits and vegetables without regard 
 to season and cost. 
 
 On the other hand, the diet in Tables I. and II. 
 is cheaper than an ordinary flesh diet, and may 
 be made still more so if bread stuffs and potatoes 
 are chiefly used, or if cheap fruits only are taken. 
 Probably 7d. or 8d. a day would then cover every- 
 thing. 
 
 But this is not by any means the cheapest form 
 of diet, since it is possible to live on bread and fruit 
 for 5d. per day. Thus we shall get 2 lbs. of bread 
 for 2^d.., and ^ lb. of dates for Id., and there is 
 l^d. still left for nuts and fruit. Of course these 
 things must be bought in quantities sufficient for 
 a week or more, if good quality is to be obtained 
 at these prices ; and further saving may be effected 
 by buying flour and making bread at home. Or 
 if a more varied diet is wanted : 1^ lbs. of bread 
 stuffs (viz., 8 ozs. of bread, 8 ozs. of biscuit, and 
 8 ozs. of pudding), 4 ozs. of dried fruit and 4 ozs. 
 of almonds, or 8 ozs. of chestnuts, will supply about 
 1,300 grs. of albumen a day ; a quantity sufficient 
 for any man of average size. These can be 
 obtained at a daily cost which is little above what 
 working men often spend on stimulants alone. 
 
 It seems to me that this question of cost is of 
 great importance, as the power of providing food 
 
VALUES OP POODS 101 
 
 always in the end controls the possibilities of life, 
 and nuts could, no doubt, be greatly cheapened if 
 they were more regularly grown for food. 
 
 Many nations (as their under-nourished poor 
 demonstrate) have already multiplied up to their 
 food supply limit. 
 
 Yet the food supply is not limited by any barrier 
 but ignorance ; and with the disappearance of 
 ignorance it will become possible to multiply 
 farther, and with more power and wiser co-opera- 
 tion to obtain much better terms from Nature both 
 as to food supply and in other directions also. 
 
 Ultimately the problem of cheap living controls 
 the existence of the nation as well as of the 
 individual. 
 
 Such nations as our own, spending vast sums on 
 stimulant poisons, cannot hope to survive even 
 if the poisons themselves were less injurious than 
 they are. 
 
 It is demonstrable (" Uric Acid," pp. 336 and 
 875-878) that stimulant poisons would never have 
 gained their present position if unnatural foods 
 had not opened the door, and that where these 
 foods are rejected, the stimulants soon follow. 
 
 Therefore it becomes evident that diet is the 
 greatest of questions for the human race, for not 
 only does his ability to obtain food determine man's 
 existence; but its quality controls the circulation 
 in the brain, and this decides the trend of being 
 
102 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 and action, accounting for much of the difference 
 between depravity and the self-control of wisdom. 
 
 However far the eye can range over the past, 
 there is no iota of evidence that the laws of Nature 
 have altered their working by the fraction of a 
 hair's breadth. The path of self-indulgence has 
 always led to decay and extinction, while that of 
 abstinence and self-control opens upon the possi- 
 bilities of a mighty evolution. And the nature of 
 man's food largely determines which path he will 
 follow. 
 
 There is thus much hope for the regeneration 
 of the race, for its present plight is the result of 
 unnatural feeding; in a word, of food poisoning, 
 and since the cause can be removed the result can 
 be reversed if there is yet time. 
 
 The question then arises : Are men whose facul- 
 ties are obscured by a pernicious diet capable of 
 -realising the danger and avoiding it? 
 
 Diet of Training and Athletics. 
 
 Those who take an unusually large amount of 
 exercise require an extra allowance of albumens to 
 produce extra force, and it may be gathered from 
 the researches which I have already published in 
 (pp. 379 and 403) "Uric Acid," that for cycling 
 exercise and my own body, the urea produced is 
 proportional to the distance traversed ; that is, to 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 103 
 
 the work done, being about 1 to 1^ grs. of urea for 
 a mile, or from 3 to 4j grs. of albumen for a mile ; 
 and as my weight is about 125 lbs., this gives from 
 "024 to '036 grs. of albumen per lb. per mile. 
 
 And if we take it that from 75 to 80 miles is as 
 much as I am likely to do in this line of exercise 
 on any given day, and that 125 X 9 is my ordinary 
 allowance of daily albumens when sedentary = 1,125 
 grs., then 125 X '03 (which is half-way between 
 0-24 and 0-36) and the result multiplied by 75 = 281 
 grs. of albumen extra, and this added to 1,125 = 
 1,406 grs., say, 1,400 grs. 
 
 In other words, I must add to the diet of seden- 
 tary life the equivalent of 2 ozs. of cheese, or a 
 pint of milk, to enable me to perform daily the- 
 above amount of exercise. 
 
 If I did not provide the proper amount of albu- 
 mens, I should either collapse under the exercise 
 and training and fail to produce the required 
 amount of force, or I should take the necessary 
 albumens from my albumen reserves, or from the 
 body tissues as far as they could supply me, and 
 so lose weight and break down when they came 
 to an end. 
 
 I have known people who have attempted to 
 produce considerable amounts of force while living 
 on a diet of cabbages and potatoes in insufficient 
 quantities with little or no milk and cheese, and 
 the result has been a breakdown during exercise 
 
104 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 and afterwards, resulting in prolonged debility, with 
 considerable cardiac' and general muscular failure, 
 and a marked loss of body weight. No doubt the 
 weight lost would have accurately corresponded 
 with the amounts of force and urea produced. 
 
 I do not mean to say that the above figures and 
 quantities hold good for every one ; I give them 
 because a rough guide is better than none, and to 
 show the way in which my experience has led me 
 to the belief that nothing comes out of nothing, 
 and that without the necessary quantity of albumens 
 no force can be produced. 
 
 Practically, a man who requires about 1,200 grs. 
 of albumens per day for ordinary work will want 
 about 1,400 grs. for training and the hardest exer- 
 cise he is capable of doing, i.e., he must add about 
 one-sixth to his ordinary diet. 
 
 To supplement these observations it may be said 
 that, if the day's work is not done easily and 
 without anything approaching exhaustion, an in- 
 crease of albumen is required, and should be tried 
 to see if it produces improvement. 
 
 It is a good rule to take nearly the calculated 
 quantity of albumens in the form of milk, cheese 
 and bread, and then, if on account of increase of 
 exercise there is increase of appetite, let the useful 
 but not strong foods, such as rice, bread, nuts, 
 potatoes and fruit, be eaten to the desired quantity. 
 
 1) See paper on " Heart Failure as the Eesult of Deficient 
 Food."— Medical Becord, New York, May 26, 1906. 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 105 
 
 If the increased appetite is sated on such con- 
 centrated food as cheese, too much albumen may 
 be taken and this may cause dyspepsia and upset 
 the course of training. 
 
 During severe exercise, milk is probably the best 
 food to take ; its digestion, as we have seen reason 
 to believe in fig. 2, proceeds quickly and its albu- 
 mens are soon available for the production of force ; 
 this, I believe, agrees with the common experience 
 of athletes. 
 
 Milk is easily and quickly swallowed during a 
 temporary halt, but if time is available, it should 
 be taken in sips. In this way it will be more 
 quickly and satisfactorily digested, for if any quan- 
 tity above half a pint is taken in a draught it tends 
 to form large masses of curd, which not only are 
 slow and difficult of digestion, but by their bulk may 
 more or less seriously interfere with respiration and 
 circulation. 
 
 Another way of treating milk is to mix it with 
 a little dilute gruel, or barley water, which not 
 only improves its chances' of satisfactory digestion 
 but increases its nourishment value. 
 
 Cereals are good foods for training, because they 
 give . out a steady supply of albumens, force and 
 urea, over a series of hours, and their salts act as 
 stimulants to digestion, circulation and nutrition. 
 
 An absolute excess of albumens does little harm 
 so long as exercise is plentiful, regular, and taken 
 under climatic conditions that favour warmth and 
 
106 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 perspiration ; but under the opposite conditions it 
 may cause high acidity and retention of uric acid, 
 thus leading to rheumatism and other troubles. 
 
 It follows from my researches, published in " Uric 
 Acid " and elsewhere, that a diet entirely free from 
 flesh, tea, coffee and similar alkaloid-containing 
 vegetable substances is the best for training and 
 athletics. 
 
 As shown in preceding pages, the material (albu- 
 men) necessary for production of the required force 
 can thus be had and is lacking neither in quantity 
 nor quality in the foods to be used, while at the 
 same time the enormous advantage is obtained of a 
 free circulation through tissues, nerve-centres and 
 muscles alike, keeping them well supplied with fuel 
 and free from waste products and refuse during 
 their time of trial. 
 
 One does not need much mechanical knowledge 
 to see that if power is kept constant while friction 
 is diminished by half (this fact can be made visible 
 even to untrained and unaided eyes by observing 
 the rate of the capillary circulation), more and 
 better work can be got out of the machine. 
 
 Hitherto the knowledge we now have has been 
 applied more or less by rule of thumb and yet 
 even thus has achieved some wonderful results. 
 
 Some of these I have akeady recorded in " Uric 
 Acid," and another appeared in an article in the 
 Daily News of June 29, 1898. It was from their 
 
VALUES OP FOODS 107 
 
 ]t/erlin Correspondent, and was thus headed, "A 
 Vegetarian Victory — Meat-Eaters Walked off their 
 ;Legs." 
 
 ' It stated that fourteen meat-eaters and eight 
 vegetarians started for a 70 miles' walking match. 
 All the vegetarians reached the goal " in splendid 
 condition," the first covering the distance in 
 fourteen and a quarter hours. An hour after the 
 last vegetarian, came the first meat-eater, and he 
 was "completely exhausted." He was also the 
 last meat-eater, for all the rest had dropped off 
 after 35 miles of endeavour. 
 
 These results, so far as I know, were produced 
 without scientific knowledge and in more or less 
 ignorance of the facts above stated ; and if so much 
 has been achieved, how much more may be possible 
 if knowledge is applied intelligently, if we ensure 
 sufficient albumen and force while rigidly excluding 
 the poisons which cause friction in the machinery. 
 
 An almost exactly similar illustration of the 
 effects of diminished friction is furnished by the 
 Dresden to Berlin walk of 1902. For this eighteen 
 vegetarians and fourteen meat-eaters started, and 
 ten vegetarians, but only three meat-eaters, came 
 in. The winner (Karl Mann) was upwards of seven 
 hours before the first meat-eater. 
 
 The last meat-eater only just got in within the 
 time limit, and was beaten by more than four hours 
 
108 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 by a man of 59, who had been a vegetarian fo 
 thirty-eight years. ; 
 
 In this race the championship of Germany was 
 decided and the winner made two world's records. 
 The proceedings were watched, and the organs and 
 circulation of competitors measured and recorded 
 by a committee of physiologists, for the benefit of 
 the German Government and Army. 
 
 A week or two after the race I had the pleasure 
 of examining the winner, who had to a large extent 
 arranged his diet by the aid of previous editions 
 of this book, and as I found that neither his 
 colour nor circulation were quite up to my highest 
 standards, I ventured to prophesy that he would do 
 still better in the future and beat his own records. 
 pHis circulation was far better than that of any 
 (meat-eater, which to a large extent explains his 
 victory ; and the records showed that his heart was 
 smaller at the end of the race than at the begin- 
 ning. I have little doubt that the meat-eaters who 
 broke down had dilated hearts, owing to obstructed 
 circulation. (See facts about Fatigue in " Uric 
 Acid," chap, viii.) 
 
 It is right to mention that the winner had some 
 albuminuria on the day following the race, which 
 shows that even in his condition so great a strain 
 could not be borne with absolute impunity, and, 
 as I have said above, he was not up to my highest 
 standards. 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 109 
 
 p During recent years most interesting experi- 
 inents on diet have been made in the United 
 States ; some of these demonstrating that soldiers 
 can Hve well and work hard for many months on 
 milk and cereals, and that in certain cases it may 
 be possible to do this on smaller quantities of 
 albumen than those I have here advised. 
 
 But as my results in myself and others were 
 constant over long periods of time (five to seven 
 years), and are in practical accord with the pre- 
 vious results of physiologists, I should not be 
 inclined to alter the ratio of albumen to body 
 weight previously given (pp. 7 to 10) till I had 
 seen men living on a lower ratio without loss in 
 any direction (temperature, colour, circulation) over 
 similar long periods. 
 
 Of course those who carry 14 lbs. of adipose 
 tissue (if they calculate this in body weight) will 
 get on with a relatively lower ratio than those 
 who are not in the same case, but my results are 
 calculated for the latter and this must be kept in 
 mind when the ratios are compared. 
 
 In all cases it is necessary to insist that the 
 temperature be quite up to the normal (98'4° F.), 
 that the colour shall be normal (blood decimal I'O 
 or I'l, see " Uric Acid," edition vii., or Epitome, 
 ed. ii.), and the capillary circulation free, in addition 
 to all other signs of good nutrition, strength and 
 power of endurance. No diet is satisfactory which 
 
110 DIET AND FOOD— CHAPTER IV 
 
 does not keep these up to standard ; and any diet 
 which keeps these things normal over a series of 
 years is sufficient for the individual thus main- 
 tained. No other standard is possible, and quantity 
 in relation to body weight is simply a rough guide 
 for beginners. 
 
 In my opinion a few more hard facts h\e these 
 (and plenty more of such records will be forth- 
 coming) will dispel the lingering delusion that 
 strength and endurance can only be attained on 
 flesh foods. 
 
 The truth is that 50 per cent, more endurance 
 and strength can be obtained from many other 
 foods, and the chief reason for this can now be 
 gauged in a moment, by the rate of the capillary 
 circulation of the individuals concerned. This 
 capillary circulation is proportional to the uric acid 
 in the blood (see "Uric Acid," chap, v.), and is 
 therefore slowed and obstructed by the introduction 
 of uric acid in meat. 
 
 A point of interest in this connection is recorded 
 by Prof. Dr. Baelz, of Tokio, in the Berliner 
 Klinische Wochenscrift, 1901, p. 689 (a reference 
 to which I owe to the kindness of my friend. Dr. 
 W. Veit, of Berlin). 
 
 Prof. Baelz made some experiments on vegetarian 
 natives of Japan and after measuring and record- 
 ing some of their feats of endurance he gave them 
 meat, which they took eagerly, regarding it as a 
 
VALUES OP FOODS 111 
 
 luxury because it was used by the upper classes. 
 After three days, however, they came and begged 
 they might discontinue it as they felt tired and 
 could not work as well as before. The Professor 
 then made some smaller experiments on himself, 
 with the result that he also was sooner tired and 
 more disinclined for exertion when meat was 
 taken. 
 
 I cannot agree with his conclusion that man is 
 omnivorous, but I do agree that splendid power 
 and endurance can be attained on vegetable food, 
 and if Prof. Baelz had measured the capillary 
 circulation on both diets he would have seen the 
 explanation of his results. I believe he is right in 
 saying that the amount of albumen said by Voit 
 to be required is somewhat high ; for 120 grammes 
 of albumen is equal to 1,848 grs. of albumen, 
 and, as the figures in this book show, there are 
 not many people who require much more than 
 1,400 or 1,500 grs. a day. But in my opinion it is 
 absurd to name any definite amount as necessary, 
 for obviously quantity must vary with the weight 
 and activity of the individual. 
 
 The Japanese are for many reasons an interest- 
 ing people. It seems to be clear that they have 
 great strength and power of endurance, and con- 
 siderable freedom from rheumatism. It is also 
 noticeable that they possess remarkable mental 
 activity which has displayed itself on the intellec- 
 
112 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 tual side in much artistic talent, and on the prac- 
 tical side in the organisation of military power and 
 the development of commerce. And since their 
 diet and mode of life are such as to give them con- 
 siderable freedom from uric acid, it is not unreason- 
 able to trace many of these advantages to this 
 cause. Indeed it follows, from what I have here 
 and elsewhere written, that they ought logically to 
 display exactly the advantages which we see them 
 enjoying. 
 
 The staple of their diet is rice, which is free from 
 uric acid, and though many of them take with this 
 a little fish, it is very little, and the almost uni- 
 versal tea is, I believe, very dilute in comparison 
 with that used in England. Probably their intake 
 of uric acid is thus only one-fifth or one-sixth that 
 of the sedentary Londoner, and their fondness for 
 vegetables and devotion to healthy, outdoor life, 
 their use of hot baths and muscular exercises does 
 not a little to prevent the accumulation of such 
 small quantities of uric acid as they swallow. 
 Hence, they are to a very considerable extent free 
 from its accumulation (rheumatism), and from its 
 evil effects on the circulation of the brain and the 
 muscles where it causes mental lethargy and bodily 
 fatigue. 
 
 There are thus not a few points in which we 
 could, with advantage, take a hint from our allies. 
 
 I must leave those engaged in practical athletics 
 
VALUES OP POODS 113 
 
 to test these suggestions and record results ; when 
 once they grasp my points and the great practical 
 gain thus promised, I feel sure that they will not 
 be slow to do so. Indeed, as the above and other 
 records show, the thing is already being done, but 
 with a little more scientific knowledge it might 
 easily be done still better. 
 
 I would also point out to pathologists that, if I 
 am right, and if the poisons in meat and tea do 
 cause friction (especially vascular friction) through- 
 out the body, it is evident that training and 
 athletics as at present carried on, upon a diet 
 containing these poisons must bring a ruinous 
 strain upon the vascular system, especially the 
 heart and large vessels. Speaking as a physician, 
 I believe that more or less serious functional or 
 organic trouble in this system is no rare result of 
 the process, even in the young and presumably 
 healthy, and such signs as palpitation, sleeplessness, 
 dyspepsia, and more or less hypertrophy and dilata- 
 tion of the heart may be taken as evidence of the 
 fact. 
 
 It is quite evident from one of the walking 
 records just given that the meat-eater who com- 
 pleted the distance ran considerable risk of doing 
 himself serious injury. On his arrival he had to 
 be given brandy and put to bed in a state of ex- 
 haustion, while the vegetarian feeders were little, 
 if any, the worse for their performance. 
 8 
 
114 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 I by no means wish to assert that men or animals 
 who live entirely on a uric-acid-free diet may not 
 dilate and strain their hearts by over-exertion. 
 Comparative anatomy alone contains sufi&cient evi- 
 dence in the moderator band of the herbivorous 
 heart tbat such a thing is possible ; but I do main- 
 tain that, for reasons which are clear as daylight, 
 the meat-eater and tea-drinker is much more likely 
 to do it and to do it badly. He may produce the 
 same amount of force as the man who is free 
 from these poisons, but he will consume a greater 
 quantity of albumen in doing it, and it will be done 
 at a far higher cost in pressure and strain upon 
 all the tissues and orgarJ^'fe^that they will wear 
 out sooner and more fr# ~ „ , , give rise to func- 
 
 tional disturbance as tl^\ , ,,, of the treatment 
 
 TOd tr 
 to which they are subjecteflk^^g, 
 
 A very remarkable record has been published 
 by Mr. E. H. Miles, the well-known tennis cham- 
 pion,^ who states that altering his diet has not 
 only cured him of several serious or threatening 
 diseases, but has given him 50 per cent, more power 
 and endurance, both in muscle and brain. 
 
 His results are the more valuable because, being 
 a champion, his performances have been recorded 
 and there is no doubt about his improvement at a 
 
 ' "Muscle, Brain and Diet." Swan, Sonnenschein and Co., 
 London, 1900. 
 
VALUES OP FOODS 115 
 
 time of life when, as he himself points out, he 
 ought to have been deteriorating. 
 
 I have discussed some of his records and a few 
 points in which he appears to have misunderstood 
 me, in " Uric Acid " (prev. ref., pp. 367, 407, 889), 
 so there is no occasion for repetition here. But 
 those who fear that strength and endurance cannot 
 be attained (to say nothing of being much increased), 
 on a non-flesh diet, should not fail to read his book. 
 
 Obesity. — Not only is there no necessity for those 
 who make use of these diets to become stout, but 
 they can easily be modified so as to reduce the 
 obesity of those who suffer from other diets. 
 
 Of course, if any one begins on one of the above 
 diets containing two or more pints of milk, and 
 takes cream and butter freely, he may increase a 
 good many pounds in weight even in a month or 
 two. 
 
 I mention this specially to point out that such 
 increase in weight, if due to fat, is no proof of 
 satisfactory nutrition, and does not demonstrate a 
 due quantity of albumens daily consumed. Under 
 these circumstances the only proof that the supply 
 of albumens is sufficient is a more or less constant 
 feeling of abundant strength, with ample powers 
 of endurance ; which, by the way, are almost never 
 met with in those who are too stout. 
 
 Stout people have, in my experience, very often 
 decidedly high blood pressure, and it is at least 
 
116 DIET AND FOOD— CHAPTEB IV 
 
 probable, as I have elsewhere suggested, that the 
 cause of the high blood pressure, namely, coUsemia 
 and defective capillary circulation, is also the cause 
 of the obesity. 
 
 Defective or obstructed capillary circulation pro- 
 duces, on the one hand, high blood pressure, and 
 on the other deficient metabolism or combustion 
 in the tissues (see "Uric Acid," prev. ref., p. 866), 
 one effect of which may, under certain circum- 
 stances, be an accumulation of uncombusted mate- 
 rial in the shape of fat. "We see, then, that it 
 is no mere coincidence that stout people so often 
 have high blood pressure, or that stoutness is con- 
 nected in the popular mind with a tendency to 
 apoplexy. 
 
 It follows also from my first principles that those 
 who have defective circulation cannot have much 
 power of endurance. 
 
 But if the weight tends to make a decided 
 increase on any such diet and it is not desired that 
 it should increase further, reducing the butter and 
 cream and skimming, or, better still, separating 
 the milk, is generally sufficient to bring it to a 
 standstill. 
 
 Those who are already too stout and wish to 
 reduce, can do so (with a Httle supervision) quite 
 safely, by the following plan. Let them begin a 
 diet of fruit, or fruit and biscuit only, and drink as 
 little as possible, making the fruit suffice in place 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 117 
 
 of some of the fluid they would otherwise have 
 taken. 
 
 This diet induces no feeling of starvation as the 
 amount of biscuit, dried fruit and fresh fruit is 
 limited only by appetite, and those, who have a very 
 good appetite and eat 30 ozs. or more of biscuit 
 need not lose any weight at all. But the majority 
 do not take more than 7 or 8 ozs. of biscuit in the 
 day, and this with the fruit only amounting to half 
 or one - third of the albumen they require, they 
 steadily lose weight, at about the rate of a ^ lb. 
 per day, or slightly more. I generally allow a loss 
 of about 2 lbs. to 3 lbs. a week, but if it tends 
 to exceed 3 lbs. I add a certain small amount of 
 white of egg, as much as may be necessary to 
 bring the loss within the required limits. 
 
 As a rule, too, I do not allow a greater loss than 
 from 14 lbs. to 21 lbs. at a given time, and when the 
 amount decided upon has been attained, I add on 
 to their food so much separated milk, cheese, white 
 of egg, &c., as suffices to keep the weight steady, 
 continuing some of the biscuit and a little fruit. 
 
 This diet should be given only to those who are 
 strong, and in the absence of any organic disease, 
 though many cases of morbis cordis do very well on 
 a similar dry diet, owing to the great relief which 
 the reduction of fluid and the stimulating and anti- 
 coUsemic effects of the fruit acids bring to the labours 
 of the heart. 
 
118 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 A dry diet of biscuit and fruit is also far and away 
 the best for all conditions of high blood pressure, in 
 which there is already a more or less large excess of 
 fluids retained in the body by the obstructed circu- 
 lation (Dropsy). 
 
 In many such cases marvellous cures have been 
 produced by taking only these natural foods, and 
 allowing for a time no fluids save those in the 
 'fruits ; all high blood pressure conditions are quickly 
 relieved, and fluids re absorbed into the circulation 
 from the interstices of the tissues. 
 
 In any case this diet is much pleasanter and 
 easier to carry out than that of meat and hot water, 
 which has often been used to reduce obesity, and 
 it also has the merit of being free from the dangers 
 due to the introduction of xanthin. 
 
 Much has been said and written about the cure of 
 tuberculosis by fresh air and overfeeding. 
 
 No doubt such overfeeding, if it makes the human 
 fire, so to speak, roar up the chimney, may help to 
 cure a local tuberculosis, as I have suggested in 
 " Uric Acid," p. 439 ; but I must point out that it 
 is by no means necessary to abandon a urio-acid-free 
 diet on this ground, for several of the items in it — 
 milk, cheese, and gluten — could be doubled, or even 
 rebled, if necessary. There is no doubt whatever 
 that the required albumens can be obtained from 
 these substances. 
 
 It is obvious that this stimulation of combustion 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 119 
 
 is a temporary expedient for a temporary object, 
 and that, when once the destruction of the microbe 
 has been accomplished the excess of food has neces- 
 sarily to be considerably reduced, since disease 
 would be produced in other directions by the 
 accumulation of the waste products of such exces- 
 sive combustion. It follows (as an advantage) from 
 all my previous arguments that these waste pro- 
 ducts will be less in quantity and less injurious in 
 quality, if the necessary albumens have been ob- 
 tained from a uric-acid-free source. 
 
 Alcohol, Tobacco and other Stimulants. 
 
 We have already seen that stimulants such as 
 acids do not produce force ; they merely alter its 
 distribution in time. When an acid causes feelings 
 of well-being and increased excretion of urea, it 
 merely brings about the metabolism of a certain 
 amount of albumen which was there before and 
 independent of it ; it merely alters the time rela- 
 tion of the metabolism of this albumen, converting 
 it quickly into available force and urea in one hour, 
 while without the stimulant the same albumen 
 might have been slowly converted into force and 
 urea during three or four hours. 
 
 But after the force has been produced and urea 
 excreted, the body is poorer in albumens than it 
 would have been at the same hour if no stimulant 
 had been taken ; and the urea curve falls more 
 
120 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTEB IV 
 
 quickly, as we have seen in chap, i., fig. 5, than 
 if no stimulation had taken place. 
 
 It is followed, indeed, so long as no fresh albumen 
 is introduced from without, by an exactly corre- 
 sponding depression, for the body must economise 
 in the following hours to make up for the increased 
 loss of force in the hour of stimulation. 
 
 It is no doubt sometimes necessary for the 
 preservation of life that an extra quantity of force 
 should be available in a given time, and Nature 
 provides for this need by keeping a reserve of 
 albumens in the blood and tissues. The natural 
 stimulant of a call for extra force and exertion 
 brings this reserve out and uses it up ; a corre- 
 sponding rise of urea showing what has taken 
 place. 
 
 But as there has been no fresh introduction of 
 albumen and force, the body is poorer in these 
 constituents than before, and must economise and 
 rest, or obtain fresh supplies from without. 
 
 And if this is the effect of the natural stimulant 
 of a call for exertion, it must also be the effect of 
 the unnatural stimulant, alcohol ; this introduces 
 no albumen and force, it merely affects circula- 
 tion, nutrition, and the metabolism of the albumens 
 already in the body, and this call on the resources 
 of the body is invariably followed by a correspond- 
 ing depression or economy in the future. 
 
 All artificial and unnatural stimulation is there- 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 121 
 
 fore wrong, it only calls out the reserves of force 
 and makes the body poorer in the following period 
 to a corresponding extent, for every up is followed 
 by a down, and nothing is really gained. 
 
 There is, however, one exception to this rule, 
 and that is, when the body is much in need of 
 fresh supplies, and urea has run down so much that 
 force for digestion is scarcely available. A stimu- 
 lant may here do good by calling out some of the 
 remaining reserves, thus furnishing the necessary 
 force for digestion and bringing fresh albumens 
 more quickly into circulation, until nutrition moves 
 up again. 
 
 Even here artificial stimulation may be replaced 
 by rest and economy of force, and is not really 
 necessary if such rest is possible. 
 
 Stimulation, then, is merely a call on the reserves 
 of force already in the body, and the more these 
 reserves have already been called upon the greater 
 will be the stimulus required to produce still more; 
 whereas if the alcohol were itself a force producer, 
 the effect should be the same each time for the 
 same dose. 
 
 A food introduces force from without ; a stimulant 
 calls out force already in the body, and athletes 
 know they must not take stimulants till near the 
 end of the race, for when once their final reserves 
 have been called out and used, collapse results. 
 On the other hand, if milk instead of alcohol is 
 
122 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTKB IV 
 
 taken there is an access of strength, and this is 
 experienced with each fresh supply. 
 
 Here, then, is a fundamental distinction between 
 food and stimulant, and one already well known 
 to athletes ; it can be easily tested by any one who 
 will take the trouble. 
 
 A stimulant increases force only so long as there 
 is albumen available for it to act upon. 
 
 Force is thus proportional to the quantity of 
 food (if within the limits of digestion) ; but it is not 
 proportional to the quantity of stimulant, and bears 
 a constantly smaller and smaller proportion to it as 
 stimulation is repeated. 
 
 It is useless to argue that force is got out of 
 sugars and starches apart from the temporary rise 
 of urea they indirectly produce (fig. 4). If this 
 were so, then they would sustain life indefinitely 
 and apart from albumens, and these last would 
 not be a sine qua non of life. The contrary has 
 been proved by physiologists, and can be proved 
 again and again by any one who will repeat either 
 the experiments of the athletes or those of which I 
 give figures. Neither alcohol nor sugar is a food 
 in the same sense as albumen. 
 
 What do we see in Nature ? If a man is only 
 slightly tired when urea is falling, but reserves are 
 still fair, a teaspoonful of brandy may keep him 
 going for some distance. At the end of that time 
 his reserves will be considerably reduced, and three 
 
VALUES OP FOODS 123 
 
 or four teaspoonfuls of brandy will have less effect 
 than one. 
 
 The sarae applies to those who constantly resort 
 to stimulants ; they are drawing on their reserves, 
 the amount of stimulant must be increased as the 
 reserves diminish, and this, again, is exactly what 
 we find in Nature. 
 
 It has been truly said that the man who relies 
 upon stimulants for strength is lost, for he is draw- 
 ing upon a reserve fund which is not completely 
 replaced, and physiological bankruptcy must in- 
 evitably ensue. 
 
 This is what the stimulants, such as tea, coffee, 
 alcohol, tobacco, opium and cocaine do for those 
 who trust in them ; they none of them introduce 
 albumen, available for conversion into force and 
 urea, they merely aid the calling out of reserves. 
 
 Alcohol and tobacco are stimulants only, and by 
 improving the circulation (like the acids previously 
 spoken of), they call out a certain quantity of 
 albumen, force, and urea (see fig. 5) ; but tea 
 and coffee are infinitely worse, for though at first 
 they act as stimulants in something the same way 
 as the acids and alcohol, later on they come into 
 the blood as the very uric acid which is causing 
 the depression. We have seen above that fatigue 
 is partly due to deficiency of albumens, and partly 
 to impaired tissue circulation rendering the stock 
 of albumens useless because they cannot get to 
 
124 DIET AND FOOD— CHAPTER IV 
 
 the tissues — this defective circulation being the 
 effect of uric acid to which the xanthins in tea and 
 coffee are equivalent. 
 
 The first action of these xanthins is as acids ; 
 they clear the blood of uric acid, and hence they 
 are stimulants ; later they come into the blood as 
 uric acid and increase the depression. 
 
 Those who cannot get through their daily work 
 without a call on the reserves with alcohol, tobacco, 
 tea, or coffee (the action of which I have considered 
 in "Uric Acid," p. Ill), are either weak or dis- 
 eased, and their path leads to physiological bank- 
 ruptcy. And of what sort are they ? Not those 
 who live on the diets in the above Tables, for such 
 persons commonly move in the opposite direction 
 and give up alcohol and tobacco, if they had used 
 them before. 
 
 These stimulants are necessary, however, to 
 flesh-eaters, and the reason is simple, for on all 
 flesh diets they are constantly taking uric acid and 
 the xanthins, and these are first stimulants and 
 afterwards depressants. They unnecessarily call 
 out the reserves and then plunge all into depres- 
 sion and feeble nutrition by blocking the circula- 
 tion; and while this is going on, other stimulants, 
 such as alcohol, tobacco, or tea, must be called in 
 to keep things going. (see also p. 40). 
 
 It follows that the only way to get clear of 
 stimulants is to give them up ; if any are retained 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 125 
 
 yon must of necessity be led to take more, and 
 gradually to add others which are more powerful. 
 
 On the other hand, to keep the reserves entire 
 and untouched for the day of trial which is sure 
 to come to all ; to work clearly and steadily with- 
 out effort and without friction is alone sufficient 
 to make life worth living. So great is the differ- 
 ence between physiological solvency and bank- 
 ruptcy that I do not exaggerate when I say the 
 knowledge of how the former is attained has re- 
 paid me a thousand times for the time and trouble 
 given to experiments. The physiologically solvent 
 know to the full the joys of strong and useful life ; 
 while the bankrupt retains them only in the 
 memory of what he was before his reserves were 
 exhausted ; for as these diminish, the stimulants, 
 even the more powerful ones, such as morphine 
 and cocaine, fail more and more to bring him 
 even for a moment to the level of physiological 
 health.. 
 
 But the difference must be felt and cannot really 
 be described, and there are conditions of ignorance 
 combined with prejudice on which mere words 
 produce no effect. People living under these con- 
 ditions may, for practical purposes, be divided into 
 those who do not know and those who do not want 
 to know. 
 
 The case of the latter is beyond remedy, but for 
 those who are ignorant, and have no objection to 
 
126 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 knowledge if it is within reach, a demonstration, 
 which is far more powerful than words, can always 
 be obtained, by testing the calculations of albu- 
 mens for body weight and watching the result. 
 It will not do to measure milk by the cupful, or 
 to imagine that an ounce of cheese is no larger 
 than a hazel nut ; these foods must be measured 
 and weighed at first, till the proper quantity comes 
 to be accurately known at sight. 
 
 Part, at least, of the bond-fide doubt of the 
 ignorant may be due to the fact that numbers of 
 people who call themselves "vegetarians," or others 
 who, for one reason or another, have abjured flesh 
 as food, have no physiological knowledge and have 
 often failed to substitute an adequate quantity of 
 albumens. The result has, of course, been in such 
 cases that their nutrition has often failed either to 
 satisfy themselves or to commend their methods 
 to others. 
 
 Here also probably originates the doubt not in- 
 frequently expressed, as to whether patients can 
 "stand" the diet. I can only say that the great 
 majority of people I see have no difficulty in digest- 
 ing most of the foods enumerated in the- above 
 Tables, and that if they take sufficient of these 
 and digest them, there need be no anxiety either 
 about nutrition or strength, and they are likely 
 to find their powers of endurance much increased. 
 
 No doubt those whose bodies are full of urates. 
 
VALUES OP FOODS 127 
 
 from years of flesh- eating and tea-drinking, are 
 likely to get pale at first on the new diet, as it will 
 bring a large quantity of uric acid into their blood 
 on its way to elimination, but this is merely the 
 evil of the old diet becoming apparent. If they 
 persevere, they wilJ, in from twelve to eighteen 
 months, have a better colour than most meat- 
 eaters, for when the uric acid is eliminated the 
 blood recovers and improves. (See " Uric Acid," 
 chap, xii.) 
 
 I have found the colour and condition of the 
 blood such a useful guide to the effects of treat- 
 ment that I have been led to produce a card of 
 colours,^ for the approximate estimation of the blood 
 decimal from the corresponding colour of the mucous 
 membranes of the patient. 
 
 Thus, a patient whose colour, as seen in tongue, 
 gums, or eyelids, corresponds to that marked "4 on 
 the card, may, at the end of three months on diet, 
 be the same, or the colour may have fallen to "3, 
 or improved to "5 (these being intermediates be- 
 tween "2 and ''4, and '4 and "6).^ 
 
 If he is the same I am content, for the blood 
 
 ^ To be obtained from Messrs. Bale, Sons, and Danielsson, 
 Ltd., 83-91, Great Titohfield Street, W. Price Is. each. 
 
 ^ Those who wish to compare these figures with those of the 
 standards of blood worth in use to-day must add '3 to the 
 above, i.e., -4 will be •? and '6 will be -9. (For the explanation 
 of this see " Uric Acid," Ed. VII., or the Epitome, Ed. II.) 
 
128 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 does not improve much at first on diet ; if he has 
 improved to "5 he has done more than usually well, 
 but if he has fallen to 3 he has done badly, and 
 the uric acid of the old diet has been rushing too 
 quickly into his blood, and this requires to be 
 moderated. I investigate and probably find that he 
 has not been taking enough food, or has not been 
 digesting what he takes, or that there is over-fatigue 
 or over- work, or life in a hot, relaxing climate ; any 
 of which increase the rush of the uric acid into the 
 blood. I then proceed to adjust the diet, or give a 
 tonic to restrain the uric acid flood for a time. 
 
 Later on, after six and still more after nine and 
 twelve months on the diet, the colour should show 
 very decided improvement, being perhaps some- 
 where near '6 at the end of twelve months, and 
 about "7 after eighteen months. Failure to attain 
 these colours is a sign that all is not going well ; 
 that care and attention are required. The colour 
 "8 is one attained only after a good many years on 
 diet, or by children who are thus brought up; 
 adults can hardly expect to attain to it. 
 
 For further information I must refer my readers 
 to chap. xii. of " Uric Acid," in which the whole 
 subject of the condition of the blood and its relation 
 to uric acid is treated. 
 
 Again, if the muscles produce force more smoothly 
 and continuously, and with less friction, on a 
 supply of albumens free from the poisonous pro- 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 129 
 
 ducts of dead animal tissues, and if muscular life 
 becomes more pleasant from this cause, how much 
 more important this physiological solvency, when 
 we realise that it applies also to the great nerve 
 centres, the organ of the mind, and find that 
 here also the result is better work more easily 
 performed, and not only this, but a more kindly, 
 true and noble relation to all the conditions and 
 phenomena of life. 
 
 This is seen even in the ordinary mental attitude 
 of meat-eaters. 
 
 Meat eating (or for that matter uric acid taking 
 in any form) induces laziness, since it brings 
 about a sluggish, defective circulation in brain, 
 muscle, bone, and throughout the body : hence 
 people are what is called " bone lazy," but are really 
 brain, bone, muscle, and generally lazy, because 
 circulation is everywhere defective. 
 
 Others say they are " born tired," which means 
 that they were born full of uric acid by a parent 
 who was full of it. 
 
 This means selfishness, effeminacy, degeneration, 
 decay, and extinction, if continued. It produces 
 the love of riches that a luxurious idleness may 
 be attained. Whether this, with its consequent 
 satiety and distaste of life, is the ideal for the unit 
 of a healthy nation, let the nation judge. 
 
 Anaemia, lethargy, selfishness, degeneration of 
 mind and body (which are all forms of disease) 
 9 
 
130 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTEE IV 
 
 abound, few or none know what healthy life means, 
 and the great majority live but half their span. 
 The ways are full of the lethargic who do not want 
 to walk, the arthritic with crippled joints who 
 cannot walk, and the obese who can only crawl. 
 
 To those who are free from disease, life presents 
 a very different aspect, all is energy, labour is a 
 glory, the power to do is a pleasure, there is the 
 healthy instinct for longevity, and indolence offers 
 no attraction. 
 
 The one attitude of mind is sanity and health ; 
 the other disease, degeneration, insanity, and death. 
 
 Indeed, I think it is not too much to say, that 
 as with force and nutrition insolvency leads to 
 less work worse performed (as the reserves are 
 one after the other called out and used up) so with 
 regard to the mind does insolvency lead to less 
 mental range and activity, and (worse than all) to 
 a narrowing view of the world and all it contains, 
 with a tendency to magnify the importance of self. 
 This attitude is, in many cases, as is well known 
 to those who have studied the subject, the prelude 
 to that complete loss of mental power and balance 
 — insanity. Our asylums are full to overflowing, 
 and we daily build new ones. Would it not be 
 wiser to spend a little money in cutting off the 
 stream .at its source ? Should we not put our 
 insane population in these asylums on a diet which 
 at least does not increase the mischief ? 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 131 
 
 On the other hand, perfect solvency of mind 
 and body hfts both to higher levels of power and 
 knowledge ; forming the highest attainable develop- 
 ment of the mens sana in corpore sano, and leading 
 upwards " into the higher sunlit, slopes of that 
 mountain which has no summit, or whose summit 
 is in heaven only " (Sartor resartus). 
 
 In the foregoing pages I have not attempted 
 to give a complete physiological explanation of all 
 the conditions ; I have tried rather to put the 
 knowledge gained into the most useful form for 
 practical purposes. To recapitulate, I think we 
 may say that the force produced by muscle is, 
 other things equal, proportional to the albumens 
 available. 
 
 The same quantity of albumens will produce the 
 greater result the less friction they have to over- 
 come ; that is to say, when the muscles are in 
 training the same excretion of urea will correspond 
 to a greater number of miles covered than when the 
 muscles are soft and out of use. 
 
 Similarly, a given quantity of albumens will 
 produce a greater result when the circulation of the 
 blood is free and complete ; that is, when it is 
 clear, and kept clear, of the obstructing and 
 friction-causing xanthins and uric acid. 
 
 And when the circulation is thus obstructed a 
 greater quantity of albumens will be used up by 
 the heart muscle in the increased work imposed 
 
132 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 upon it, and, therefore, less albumen will be available 
 for the body muscles in general. 
 
 It is a natural sequence that 1 oz. of albumen 
 from bread, milk, or cheese, will produce a greater 
 external result than a like amount of albumen 
 from the tissues of dead animals. 
 
 Man has no doubt been misled by the stimulat- 
 ing properties of animal tissues and their extracts 
 into exactly opposite beliefs, and this is specially 
 noteworthy in the case of beef-tea, which is almost 
 universally used in spite of the fact that it contains 
 little or no albumen available for force production, 
 and is thus nearly as pure a stimulant as a glass 
 of wine. 
 
 But facts now admit of no doubt, and can be 
 easily noted and verified, and the sad certainty 
 that the path of stimulation once entered upon 
 has too often led to the ruin of mind and body, can 
 scarcely at this period of the world's history require 
 further demonstration. 
 
 As regards pathology, it will one day, I doubt 
 not, be evident to all that many diseases now called 
 by different names are really not diseases at all, 
 but are effects of uric acid and similar substances. 
 A trial of the uric-acid-free diet for a few months 
 generally suf35ces in itself to convince people that 
 they had previously been living on foods so de- 
 leterious as to deserve the, name of poison. 
 
 A still more convincing experiment is to live on 
 
VALUES OF FOODS 133 
 
 the diet for a year or two, so as to get free from 
 poisons, and then to take them again. The result 
 is that all the old troubles at once show signs of 
 returning. And those who have been on the correct 
 foods for some time can tell at once, by the visible 
 changes in their capillary circulation and the in- 
 visible but quite distinct changes in their feelings 
 of health, that some poisons have been introduced 
 into their foods, and it is then generally an easy 
 matter to identify the poison-containing substance. 
 
 The full effects of these poisons on the physical, 
 mental, and moral nature of man will only be 
 recognisable when large numbers live on a uric-acid- 
 free diet for the whole of their lives, and transmit 
 an untainted heredity to their descendants. Then 
 only will it be possible to calculate the price we 
 now pay for the stimulant poisons. 
 
 Mr. Miles estimates his mental and physical gain 
 at 50 per cent., but it would be probably consider- 
 ably more for those who begin diet before they 
 become diseased, and who thus have the advantage 
 of growing and developing on foods which are 
 natural and wholesome. 
 
 For my part I think I may safely promise that 
 no one will ever regret changing his diet if he 
 takes care to provide constantly a sufficient quantity 
 of albumens, and not to make the change more 
 quickly than this all important condition will allow. 
 
 As will be evident to those who read " Uric 
 
134 DIET AND FOOD — CHAPTER IV 
 
 Acid," if the poisons have produced serious and 
 extensive organic changes, the sad words "too 
 late" may have to be written over the case; but 
 I have never seen a condition where some little 
 improvement was not possible, and very many who 
 had given up hope have been restored and received 
 new life. 
 
135 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Acids, efiect on excretion of urea 
 
 Albumen, dry and hard, the digestion of 
 
 ,, ,, may do harm 
 
 ,, ,, efiects on constipation ... 
 
 physiology of 
 
 whether animal or vegetable, matters little 
 values of foods 
 
 Alcohol not a force producer 
 
 „ tobacco and stimulants 
 
 Anaemia, the all-pervading, its cause 
 
 Athletics, the best diet for 102, 
 
 Arteries, chalky degeneration of 
 
 PAGE 
 
 ... 21 
 
 17, 66 
 
 18, 67 
 
 18 
 
 11 
 
 105 
 
 Baelz, Professor, his experiments 110 
 
 ,, ,, „ conclusions Ill 
 
 Bankruptcy, physiological, its cause 123 
 
 Blood, its colour as a guide to nutrition and the presence of 
 
 excess of uric acid in the blood 127 
 
 Bread as a food 50 
 
 „ and povfer of endurance ... 53 
 
 ,, albumen values of various kinds 55 
 
 Breadstufi diet is dry, hence its values in disease ... 51, 74 
 Bulky diet and how to learn to eat it 67 
 
 Capillaey circulation, a measurement of 33 
 
 ,, ,, a guide to the quantity of uric acid in 
 
 the blood ' 33 
 
 Cereals, importance of taking them dry and well cooked 52, 74 
 
 Cheese as a food 50 
 
 Children, food required 7 
 
 „ urea excretion of 8 
 
 ,, ,, ,, case to illustrate 8 
 
 diet of 96 
 
 Circulation, factors that control it 23, 30 
 
 Cost of the various diets 99 
 
 Comparative anatomy of teeth 86, 87 
 
 Constipation, treatment of 18, 67 
 
 ,67 
 
 1 
 
 , 38 
 
 64 
 119 
 119 
 
 85 
 128 
 
 84 
 
136 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Diet and degradation 
 
 „ mental attitudes 
 
 dry, of bread stuffs', its advantages 
 
 of training and athletics 
 
 how to begin Its alteration ... 
 
 tables 
 
 the great question for the race 
 
 of milk, cheese, potatoes, nuts and fruit 
 
 clearness of the urine 
 precautions during change of 
 
 Diets, convenience of 
 
 Digestion of bread stuffs 
 
 Drinks, what to make them of 
 
 Dyspepsia, some causes of 
 
 ,, and debility, how to diet 
 
 66, 
 
 rAOB 
 
 38, 129 
 ... 130 
 
 51, 74 
 ... 102 
 ... 68 
 
 67, 70 
 ... 101 
 ... 70 
 
 effects on reaction and 
 
 79 
 
 10, 11, 17, 68 
 
 73 
 
 52 
 95 
 77 
 73 
 
 Effect of a uricacid-free diet on the author's excretion per 
 
 day 63 
 
 Effects of producing force on insufficient food 103 
 
 Endurance of grain-eating animals 53 
 
 ,, or temporary power 53 
 
 ,, power of, conditions that produce 29,38 
 
 Factors of nutrition, the chief 
 
 Fasting, effects on excretion of urea 
 
 Fatigue, physiology of 
 
 ,, effects of diet and drugs 
 
 ,, how to prevent 
 
 „ important relation to coUfemia ... 
 
 ,, its two kinds 
 
 Feeding, effects on excretion of urea 
 Flatulent dyspepsia, the best diets for 
 Fletcher, Mr. Horace, on mastication 
 Fluids, excess of, a cause of dyspepsia 
 Food poisons, their full effects not yet seen 
 Foods, advantages of simple 
 
 and drinks that irritate the stomach and 
 available 
 care as to eating 
 during exercise 
 general rules as to quantities 
 on which it is possible to live 
 suggestions for a day's supply 
 Force, the production of, how conditioned 
 
 „ proportional to urea 
 
 Friction in the machinery, its cause and results. 
 Fruit or potatoes at breakfast 
 
 29 
 
 3 
 
 31, 36, 45, 47 
 
 34 
 
 37 
 
 37 
 
 31 
 
 3, 12, 16, 19 
 
 74 
 
 76 
 
 . 74 
 
 133 
 
 89 
 
 stop digestion 96 
 
 48 
 
 72 
 
 105 
 
 C, 64 
 
 C-2, 71 
 
 90 
 
 2, 4, 5, 24, 29 
 
 29 
 
 ... 113, 131 
 60 
 
INDEX 137 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Fruit not to be taken out of season 61,91 
 
 Fruits as food • 59 
 
 Groups of uric acid diseases 51 
 
 Growth and development on foods tree from poison ... ... 133 
 
 HuNGEB, what it means 25 
 
 „ and feelings of emptiness 26,27,28,94 
 
 IQNOBANCE of what Constitutes good health ... 86, 125, 129, 130 
 Intestines, irritation of, some causes 17,67 
 
 Japan, diet habits of Ill 
 
 " Live on bread " and why 63 
 
 Man in contrast with the Carnivora 86,87 
 
 Mastication, its importance 76 
 
 „ „ Mr. H. Fletcher on 76 
 
 Meals, how many in the day 72,89 
 
 Meat, a stimulant 39,41 
 
 and late hours 42 
 
 eating and endurance 110 
 
 „ laziness 106, 111, 129 
 
 I, „ numerous meals 41 
 
 stimulation of, mistaken for powerand strength 40, 182 
 
 Mental attitude of meat eaters 129 
 
 „ effects of diet 88,129 
 
 Miles, Mr. E. H., his records 114 
 
 ., „ ,, gain in power 114,133 
 
 Milk as a food 48 
 
 ,, effects of quantity of 66,70 
 
 Moral effects of diet 88,102,130,133 
 
 Nuts as a diet 56,58,61 
 
 „ food 56, 62 
 
 and intestinal irritation 67, 99 
 
 care on first taking ... ... ... ... ... 56 
 
 how to begin 58,98 
 
 order of digestibility 63 
 
 valtie as foods 63 
 
 Obesity, prevention and treatment 115 
 
 ,, relation to high blood-pressure and apoplexy 115 
 
 Old people, albumens required by... 7 
 
 10 
 
138 
 
 INDEX 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Poisons recognised at once by those who are free from them ... 133 
 
 Potatoes as food 59 
 
 „ advantages of, for the rheumatic 82 
 
 Pulses, why left out 82 
 
 ,, as causes of disease in India 83,84 
 
 QuAHTiTiES, figures given, only a rough guide 
 ,, required 
 
 ... 104 
 64,91 
 
 EiOB as a food 56 
 
 Eheumatism, and overfeeding 82 
 
 ,, the best diet for ... 82 
 
 ,, why horses and natives in India suffei- from it 82, 88 
 
 Shook, pathology of 46 
 
 ,, why less in abstainers from flesh and tea 46 
 
 Solvency, physiological, its advantages 124,1^5,131 
 
 Stimulants, as beef tea, mislead many ... ... ... ... 132 
 
 •,, effects on national survival ... .... 101 
 
 „ experiences of athletes as to .. . ... ... 121 
 
 never produce force; only condition its produo- 
 
 119, 120, 124 
 40, 101, 124 
 to bank- 
 120 
 
 tion 
 ,, required by flesh eaters, and why ... 
 
 Stimulation a call on the reserves, and leadi 
 
 ruptoy 
 
 ,, always wrong 
 
 , , and the want of alcohol 
 
 , , is always followed by depression 
 
 ,, ,, not strength 
 
 ,, leads to ruin 
 
 ,, not proportional to quantity of stimulant 
 
 Sugar effects on excretion of urea 
 
 , , its efieots on gout and rheumatism 
 
 , , only produces force indirectly 
 
 123 
 120 
 124 
 39, 120, 121 
 ... 40 
 40, 130 
 122, 125 
 .. 19 
 ... 20 
 ... 25 
 
 Tba. a poison as well as a stimulant 123,124 
 
 Teetli in relation to diet 86 
 
 Thirst, its value as a guide to taking fluids 74 
 
 Training on meat and tea, its dangers 113 
 
 ,, the best diet for 106 
 
 Tuberculosis, overfeeding of, possible on a urio-aoid-free diet... 118 
 
 Urea, as a guide to food and feeding 
 
 „ effects of fasting and food on excretion 
 , ,, ,, ,, an acid on excretion of ... 
 
 ,, „ cheese • _ ... ,.. ',,. 
 - , , relation to production of force • . . . ■ 
 
 69 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 3t 
 
INDEX 
 
 139 
 
 Urea, efieots of milk 
 
 » ,. .. sugar 
 
 ,, relation to body weight 
 
 Uric acid, do not. swallow it 
 
 ,, ,, first a stimulant, then a depressant 
 
 ,, ,, disease is food poisoning 
 
 ,, ,, diseases in two groups 
 
 Urinary deposits, prevention of 
 
 PAGi: 
 .. 12 
 .. 19 
 .. 6, 8 
 .. 63 
 .. 124 
 .. 132 
 .. 51 
 
 Vegbtabian diet and atheromatous arteries 
 
 ») »» )i 
 
 tion of facts 
 " Vegetarian " victory in athletics... 
 " Vegetarians," where they might do better 
 Vegetables and fruits mere relishes 
 , , relation to season 
 
 probable 
 
 ... 83 
 explana- 
 
 ... 84 
 
 ... 107 
 
 38, 126 
 
 91, 60 
 
 91, 61 
 
 Washing out idea 
 
 and the harm it may do 
 
 75 
 76