The last twenty years have witnessed great activity among investigators in the field of nutritional science. The new knowledge which has thus accrued is of vital human interest and concern. Different lines of study converge to show that a vast amount of ill-defined disease and poor health may be identified with latent phases of malnutrition, and that the effective performance of individuals and communities may be seriously limited on account of lowered resistance to disease, resulting from faulty diet.

In devoting the present number of Africa to the problems of native diet, the Institute is dealing with a question of immediate practical importance, for there is at present very little accurate knowledge as to the food supply of the different African peoples. The influence of Western civilization is changing the native's mode of life throughout the African continent. In mining and industrial areas he often has to adapt himself to a different climate and altitude and new systems of housing and clothing. He usually has to work for longer hours and with greater intensity than before and is subjected to unaccustomed nervous strains and difficult psychological conditions.

Food and nutrition together provide a subject with many ramifications, and yet one on which but little direct research has been attempted in Africa. To gain an all-round view one must digress on the one hand into subjects such as agriculture, animal husbandry, fisheries, economics and sociology, in order to understand what food supplies exist for the native, and how they are being or might be used; while on the other hand there are involved medical and physiological studies on the native himself in health and disease, in order to estimate the results of nutrition whether good or bad.

The biochemist and the anthropologist look at native food problems from very different points of view, but it seems clear that research on African diets will be of scientific value only if there is co-operation between the two. Without chemical analysis it is impossible to know the composition of any particular native diet. Without a knowledge of the customs and language of any tribal area the necessary facts cannot be collected. The present article describes an attempt at co-operation along these lines, based on a study of the diet of a Northern Rhodesian tribe.

La fondation de l'État Indépendant du Congo date du Ier juillet 1885. Le 15 novembre 1908, cet État cessait d'exister pour être annexé à la Belgique et devenir le ‘Congo Belge’. Au cours des premières trente années, le Gouvernement eut, comme tâche principale, la pacification des populations indigènes, l'organisation des services d'intérêt public, l'étude des ressources économiques et le développement de leur outillage. La mise en valeur réelle de la Colonie ne débuta qu'en 1910. Le développement économique marqua depuis cette date une progression rapide et considérable.

The Witwatersrand gold mines are a series of approximately forty gold mines situated in the Witwatersrand district of the Transvaal. The mining area runs roughly from east to west for a distance of about sixty miles. All the gold mines are what is known as ‘deep’ mines, the average working depth being well over 4,000 ft. below the surface. Some mines are considerably deeper, and a few are now working at a depth of approximately 7,000 ft. The Witwatersrand is situated at an elevation of between 5,000 to 6,000 ft. above sea-level.

The diet at present used fot the African workers in the gold mines on the Rand is described in the preceding article by Dr. Orenstein, of the Central Mining Group. Dr. Orenstein is in charge of all health and welfare control for the Central Mines, and his recommendations are generally followed also by all the other mining groups on the Rand. A few comments on the diet may perhaps enable readers to visualize, in a more personal way, one of the largest undertakings in feeding great numbers of human beings from common kitchens that exists anywhere in the world.

I. L'Utilisation du Lait dans l'Alimentation. Il existe en Afrique tropicale quelques pays d'élevage où le lait figure, pour une part importante, dans l'alimentation. Le Fouta-Djallon (Guinée Française) est un de ces pays, et le Docteur Patenostre, dans un travail sur l'alimentation des Peuls au Fouta-Djallon, nous fournit au sujet de l'utilisation du lait les précisions suivantes:

The hinterland of the Gold Coast north of the 10th parallel N. Latitude is a land of sparse forestation lying within the Sudanese Zone. The continuous plains, the monotony of which is, in the dry season, broken only by scattered trees, occasional patches of low bush or a low range of hills, have been described as belonging to an ‘Orchard bush’ type of country. The Tale settlements occupy an area of some 200 square miles, immediately north of the White Volta river, and have a population density of over 170 to the square mile in the settled parts. Agriculture is the basic industry of the Tallensi and their neighbours, but their farms yield only a bare living to the majority of the populace. Unduly late rains or a visitation of locusts spells food deficiency bordering on famine for thousands.

There are two factors affecting the diet of urban Natives: on the one hand there is the expansive influence of assimilation to and adoption of European food habits, and on the other hand there is active a restrictive influence in the shape of poverty. The urban Native, through his close contact with European culture which residence in an urban environment inevitably entails, has been introduced to an extraordinarily wide range of new foodstuffs and new ways of preparing food. Consequently the range of his food desires has been much increased. But his desires are not allowed free play among this new and wide selection. The factor which narrows down his choice and curbs his desire is his poverty. The urban Native eats according to the capacity of his pocket and his food is usually the first item of expenditure which is marked out for especial economy.