WCP748

[1]

Broadstone, <Wimborne>

Dec^r. 1st. <1905>¹

My dear Fred²

Yours of Nov^r. 11th. <reached> me the day after I had written to y<ou> with a copy of Mr. Schill's³ letter.

I have really nothing to say about <the> business except to hope that this w<ill> find you at Sa Catalina in the fu<ll> enjoyment of a luxuriant South Ame<rican> fauna as good as that of Pará or E[MS burned]. I look forward with almost as much anxiety as if I were going there my<self.> You will please me best by giving a pretty full account of your captures as well as of the nature of the cou<ntry,> the walks ^paths & roads, the amount of [MS burned] cutting, the people, native or for<eign,> Indians or Spaniards.

Your letter was almost [MS burned] devoted to a defence of the [MS burned] qualities of the Trinidad [MS burned] on which [MS burned] [2] [MS burned] over-nourished as to burst out <in> a tremendous crop of boils! This is, I am aware, the belief of some people, but I feel sure they ^{the boils} are not the result of over nourishment though they may be cause by too much <f>ood, and thus be an accompaniment of over-nourishment. But I feel sure myself that they are caused mainly <b>y unwholesome food of some kind — food that is not properly digested or <a>ssimilated however nourishing it may <b>e in essential constituents. I should <very> <m>uch like to know what this "too nourishing food" consists of.

<Fr>om what I know of you I cannot <belie>ve that you ever "eat too much", [MS burned] it is the quality rather than the [MS burned]ty of food you eat that <is> [MS burned] <impo>rtance. Remember [MS burned]ent of [3] perspiration in England is al[MS burned] over a pound weight a day, [MS burned] with hard work in a tropical c[MS burned] 2 or 3 pounds may be lost in an hour! Huxley⁴ says this!⁵ To make up for this, as <well> as the loss of tissue from the w<ork> done, is why you require more nourishing food, and even fat & other heat-producing foods i<n> the tropics than in a temperate climate, the continuous pespira<tion> carrying off an immense amount of heat.

As an item worth consideratio<n on> this subject of diet is the follo<wing> note in Huxley's Physiology aft[MS burned] the constituents & nutritive va<lue of> various kinds of foods. He [MS burned] "It may be worth while to <point out> that mere chemical analysis <is, however, by itself> a very insufficient <guide as to the usefulness> [4] [MS burned]tritive value of an article of food. <A subs>tance to be nutritious must not only <cont>ain some or other of the above food-stuffs <(pro>teids, fats or carbo-hydrates) but contain <the>m in an available, that is a digestible form. <A p>iece of beef-steak is far more nourishing <than> a quantity of pease pudding containing <even> a larger proportion of proteid material, <becaus>e the former is far more digestible <than> the latter; and a piece of dry cheese, thou<gh> of high nutritive value as judged <by> mere chemical analysis, <will> not satisfy the more subtle criticism of the stomach."

<As> soon as you let me know to whose [MS burned] I am to send parcels to you I will <sen>d the 1st. volume of "My Life.",⁶ & the [MS burned] when I hear the former has reached [MS burned]ly. The criticisms have been very [MS burned] whole, combining butter and [MS burned] proportions, with now and then [MS burned] aloes!

<Yours very truly> | <Alfred R. Wa>llace [signature]