Standards of the constituents of the urine and blood and the bearing of the metabolism of Bengalis on the problems of nutrition / by D. McCay.

  • McCay, David, 1873-
Date:
1908
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Standards of the constituents of the urine and blood and the bearing of the metabolism of Bengalis on the problems of nutrition / by D. McCay. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    STANDARDS OF THE CONSTITUENTS OF THE URINE AND BLOOD— AND THE BEARING OF THE METABOLISM OF BENGALIS ON THE PROBLEMS OF NUTRITION. HE work recorded in this paper was begun in July 1906 and has been carried on in the Physiological Laboratories of the Medical College, Calcutta.(l) Chittenden’s investigations and writings have tended to upset the old-established views on standard dietaries and on the quantities of the different proximate principles necessary for the maintenance of health and vigour, and have, at the same time, placed the metabolism of the most important of the food-stuffs—proteids—on an absolutely different footing. His brilliant re- searches on the problems of nutrition have stimulated students of physiology all the world over and were indeed the exciting cause of the present investigations. The Bengali is, in a very great degree, a vegetarian, living mainly on rice and dhall (pulse) ; it was therefore very probable that the diet of the Bengali would be found deficient in proteid compared with ordinary standard diets, and would approach fairly closely to the type considered amply sufficient by Chit- tenden. This opinion was early forced on us by the results obtained from a study of the urine of the Bengali, which was undertaken as a matter of urgent clinical importance in order to get reliable standards of the excretion of the different constituents. It was very soon evident that the ordinary standards of excretion of the urinary constituents for Europeans, as stated in physiological text-books, could not be accepted for natives of Bengal and that therefore any deductions of a clinical or practical nature based on a comparison with those standards must be misleading. The first part of this paper will deal with standards of the different consti- tuents found in the urine of Bengalis. These have been obtained from a large series of observations on several different classes of the native population. The present publication will take into account only the more important constituents •—those, namely, of clinical rather than of scientific importance; the other more i1) In the actual experimental and analytical investigations the whole staff of the physiological depart- ment was actively engaged for over a year, a«d it is due to the very able, loyal and willing help of my assistants that the publication of these researches is rendered possible. I desire at once to acknowledge my indebtedness to my fellow-workers and to secure for them a full share in whatever credit the facts and figures herein recorded may be considered worthy of. The names of those who assisted are : — Assistant Surgeon S. C. Banerji, L.M.S., Assistant Professor of Physiology.