Echoes of the Month

of the opinion, formed in 1919, that overfeeding is the one conspicuous sin against physiological law committed in that country. This over-feeding is very general, and often very gross. During the year now closing I have partaken of hospitality, first, in three Northern countries, Denmark, Switzerland and Finland. It is not open to question that feeding is excessive in Denmark and Sweden. This is notably true of proteins?typically represented by meat. It needs only a brief stay in Switzerland, a land unhappily conspicuous for its very high cancer death-rate, to observe the large quantities of protein consumed. Even allowing for possibly inferior diagnosis in respect of some forms of cancer, there seems to be no doubt that the malignant death-rate is distinctly lower in Italy, for instance, than in the northern countries. Indeed, the generalisation has been made that the cancer death-rate rises as one passes from the tropics northwards. The asser-