ll well repay careful study.--[EDS.]

V

Though the consumption of vegetable foods seems to offer a slight
disadvantage from the point of view of albuminoid matters, this is not
the case touching hydro-carbonated matters and sugars. The vegetable
kingdom constitutes the almost exclusive source of these alimentary
principles. One cannot indeed take much account of the consumption of
the .5-.6 per cent, of glycogen which exists in the animal muscle
partaken of under the shape of butcher's meat. There is hardly enough
in this for a large eater of between 200 and 250 grammes of meat, to
find in hydrocarbonated matters the 1/300 or the 1/400 of the daily
ration. Hydrocarbons are necessarily borrowed from the vegetable
foods. This is also the case with sugars which do not exist in the
animal kingdom in appreciable quantities. It is the same thing with
alcohol which is obtained only from the vegetable kingdom.

VI

As to fatty matters, animal foods, like vegetable products, are
abundantly provided with them. Moreover, from the point of view of
digestibility and capability of assimilating, one may say that there
is a quasi-absolute identity between animal and vegetable fats. The
reason which would induce us to prefer either would not seem to be of
a physiological nature. The economics, which we shall see further on,
take this upon themselves, as the most serious reproach which can be
made against the use of animal dishes is doubtless their dearness, and
the reason which militates most in favour of the predominance of a
vegetable diet is to a certainty its cheapness.

VII

Such are, briefly expounded and refuted, the fundamental objections
which can be brought against the vegetarian diet and the "vegetalian"
customs. There exists, in fact, no serious physiological or chemical
reason for not satisfying our needs solely with foods of vegetable
origin. It may be interesting to note that, in reality, the most
confirmed flesh eaters support their energy-producing needs mainly
with vegetable products. In the mixed diet universally practised meat
plays but a small part.

In meat the waste in preparation and consecutive waste at table is
considerable. To really introduce 200 grammes of meat into the
stomach, nearly 400 grammes must be purchased, and expensively put
into use. What do these 200 grammes really bring in nutritive
elements?

Meat.

200 gr. (mod. fat.) at 18% albumin = 36 gr. album., about.