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Scientific American Supplement, No. 1082, September 26, 1896试读：
ZANZIBAR.
The sudden death on August 25 of Sultan Hamid bin Thwain, the ruler of Zanzibar, the attempted usurpation by Seyyid Khalid, and the bombardment of the palace by the British warships, have directed public attention to this comparatively little known but important city on the east coast of Africa.
The Zanzibar dominions achieved their independence some forty years ago under Seyyid Majid, whose father was Seyyid Said, the Sultan of Muscat and Zanzibar. The dominions formerly extended from Warsheik south to Tanghi Bay. In 1890 the coast line from Ruvuma to Wanga, with the island of Mafia, was ceded to Germany, by which partition the country was reduced to two islands, Zanzibar and Pemba, containing about a thousand square miles with 165,000 inhabitants, a strip of coast line ten miles long, together with three smaller islands and five seaports. Zanzibar is a British protectorate, as are also the Zanzibar dominions on the mainland as far north as the mouth of the Juba. The remainder of the mainland dominions to the south are leased to an Italian company.PALACE SQUARE, ZANZIBAR: TROOPS ASSEMBLED IN FRONT OF GOVERNMENT HOUSE; PALACE, WITH THE LATE SULTAN IN THE GALLERY, TO THE RIGHT HAND; HAREM TO THE LEFT.
The island of Zanzibar, together with the neighboring islands of Pemba and Mafia, to the north and south, is generally of coral formation, with here and there hills of a reddish clay, which rise in the south to an elevation of 450 feet and in the north develop into a range of hills which runs parallel to the shore at a height of over 1,000 feet. The dense forests which originally covered the island have been cut down, and the soil, which is of unusual fertility, is under thorough cultivation, yielding heavy crops of corn and manioc, which latter forms the staple food of the people.
The soil and climate are specially suited to the clove, which is raised in great quantities, the crop forming four-fifths of the total clove crop of the world. The seaboard lying opposite the island of Zanzibar is level and swampy, and the many rivers which flow from the escarpment of the great inland plateau have brought down a vast deposit of rich alluvial matter, upon which, aided by the moist, warm climate, a dense growth of tropical vegetation flourishes. A native growth of this region is the copal tree, famous as yielding the best gum known to commerce. Rice, maize, millet, the cocoa nut and the oil palm are cultivated, and the whole country is well adapted to the raising of sugar, coffee, cotton, indigo, and the various spices.
Of the original races of the island of Zanzibar only a few representatives survive. These live on the east side, and are known as Wa-Hadimu Bantus. The main population is a strange mixture of "full blood and half-caste Arabs, Indian 'Canarians' (that is, half-caste Portuguese from Kanara on the Malabar coast of India), Swahili of every shade, slaves or freedmen from all parts of East Africa," with a small sprinkling of Americans and Europeans.
The city of Zanzibar is next to Alexandria and Tunis, the largest city on the coast of Africa, and contains a population variously estimated at from 80,000 to 100,000 souls. It is easily separable into two quarters, the trading quarter, which lies along the beach and contains the palace of the Sultan, and the eastern outlying suburb in which live the lower class. The view of Zanzibar from the sea is picturesque, the palace, forts and towers, the Mission Cathedral and the successive white buildings of varied outline, making a pleasing panorama. But when the visitor passes into the heart of the city he loses himself in a tangle of foul and narrow streets, where filth and immorality abound.THE LATE SULTAN OF ZANZIBAR AND HIS MINISTERS.
The palace, which is the central point of the city's life, is thus described by a former resident, Mr. Charles L. Lyons: "A low, rambling structure divided into three parts. The higher portion is of stone, and surrounded by verandas of carved teak wood, which are very ornate and elaborate specimens of eastern decorative art work. Adjoining this is the section occupied as living apartments, and the third section is occupied by the harem, which, under the late Sultan, comprised about twenty-five Circassian women.
"The palace was a curious combination of magnificence and tawdriness. The reception room, which is about 250 ft. square, was hung with beautiful draperies embroidered in real gold. In many places the walls were inlaid with precious stones curiously and indiscriminately mingled. Next to a valuable uncut sapphire or a ruby one would find a carbuncle or some valueless stone. Many of the chairs in the finer apartments were of gold inlaid with precious stones, and about many of the rooms were inscriptions from the Koran applied in solid gold." Other conspicuous buildings as seen from the water are the Government House, the Custom House, the Signal Tower, and the Mission Cathedral.EXTERIOR VIEW OF THE SULTAN'S PALACE, ZANZIBAR.
The harbor affords a fine anchorage for shipping, and is well worthy to be the central shipping point of the east coast of Africa. The total imports for 1894 were valued at over $6,000,000 and the exports at about $5,500,000. British India controls the greater share of the import trade, sending over large cargoes of grain, rice, and piece goods from Bombay, the yearly value of the trade being $1,675,000. The German trade amounts to $340,000, and a large amount of cotton goods and kerosene oil is imported from America.
The law of succession to the throne of Zanzibar does not recognize the right of the eldest son or the son of the eldest brother deceased. In the eyes of the Mohammedan Council of State Seyyid Khalid, the late usurper, has no stronger claim to the throne than his cousin, the present Sultan Hamid bin Mohammed bin Seyyid. Khalid is spoken of as "a rash and willful young man of twenty-five," and Hamid as "an elderly gentleman, fifty or sixty years of age, respected for his prudent and peaceable conduct, acceptable to the better class of Mussulman townsfolk, and trusted as a ruler likely to preserve the traditional policy of the realm." Immediately upon the interment of the late Sultan, however, which took place two short hours after his suspicious death, Khalid proclaimed himself ruler. He gathered the palace guards together, placed barricades in the palace square, trained the guns upon the British warships, and awaited developments. They came the next morning in the shape of an ultimatum from Admiral Rawson of the St. George, a first class cruiser of 7,700 tons, which, together with four smaller cruisers and gunboats, lay off the city in the harbor, summoning Khalid to surrender, leave the palace, and make his soldiers pile their arms in front of it. If he failed to do this, the palace would be bombarded within two hours after the dispatch of the ultimatum.
As Khalid's reply was to further strengthen his defense, at the appointed time the bombardment began. Meanwhile the loyal Zanzibar troops, with a detachment of British marines and seamen, attacked the barricades. The palace was knocked to pieces and set on fire by the shells, and Khalid, driven from the shelter, fled to the German consulate for safety.
Hamid was proclaimed Sultan by General Matthews, Mr. Cave, the consul, and Admiral Rawson, and order was at once restored to the city.
At the time of the bombardment it was freely predicted that the annexation of Zanzibar would speedily follow; but it now appears that the government considers that no advantages are to be gained by such a step, the cost of a direct administration being much greater than the native administration, which under the present protectorate is working satisfactorily.
We are indebted for our illustrations to the Illustrated London News and to Black and White.
ERRORS IN OUR FOOD ECONOMY.
Scientific research, interpreting the observations of practical life, implies that several errors are common in the use of food.
First, many people purchase needlessly expensive kinds of food, doing this under the false impression that there is some peculiar virtue in the costlier materials, and that economy in our diet is somehow detrimental to our dignity or our welfare. And, unfortunately, those who are most extravagant in this respect are often the ones who can least afford it.
Secondly, the food which we eat does not always contain the proper proportions of the different kinds of nutritive ingredients. We consume relatively too much of the fuel ingredients of food, such as the fats of meat and butter, the starch which makes up the larger part of the nutritive material of flour and potatoes and sugar and sweetmeats. Conversely, we have relatively too little of the protein of flesh-forming substances, like the lean of meat and fish and the gluten of wheat, which make muscle and sinew and which are the basis of blood, bone and brain.
Thirdly, many people, not only the well-to-do, but those in moderate circumstances, use needless quantities of food. Part of the excess, however, is simply thrown away with the wastes of the table and the kitchen; so that the injury to health, great as it may be, is doubtless much less than if all were eaten. Probably the worst sufferers from this evil are well-to-do people of sedentary occupations—brain workers as distinguished from hand workers.
Finally, we are guilty of serious errors in our cooking. We waste a great deal of fuel in the preparation of our food, and even then a great deal of the food is very badly cooked. A reform in these methods of cooking is one of the economic demands of our time.
Cheap vs. Dear Food.—We cannot judge of the nutritive value of food by the quantity. There is as much nutriment in a pound of wheat flour as in 3½ quarts of oysters, which weigh 7 pounds. There is still less connection between nutritive value and price. In buying at ordinary market rates we get as much material to build up our bodies, repair their wastes, and give strength for work in 5 cents' worth of flour or beans or codfish as 50 cents or $1 will pay for in tenderloin, salmon or lobsters.
Round steak at 15 cents a pound is just as digestible and is fully as nutritious as tenderloin at 50. Mackerel has as high nutritive value as salmon, and costs from an eighth to half as much. Oysters are a delicacy. If one can afford them, there is no reason for not having them, but 25 cents invested in a pint would bring only about an ounce of protein and 230 calories of energy. The same 25 cents spent for flour at $6 a barrel, or 3 cents a pound, would pay for nine-tenths of a pound of protein and 13,700 calories of energy. When a day laborer buys bread at 7½ cents a pound, the actual nutritive material costs him three times as much as it does his employer, who buys it in flour at $6 a barrel.
Illustrations of the prejudice of people, especially those in moderate circumstances, against the less expensive kinds of food are very common.
Mr. Lee Meriwether, who has given much attention to this special subject, cites a case in point, that of a coal laborer, who boasted: "No one can say that I do not give my family the best flour, the finest of sugar, the very best quality of meat." He paid $156 a year for the nicest cuts of meat, which his wife had to cook before six in the morning or after half past six at night, because she worked all day in a factory. When excellent butter was selling at 25 cents a pound he paid 29 cents for an extra quality. He spent only $108 a year for clothing for his family of nine, and only $72 a year for rent in a close tenement house, where they slept in rooms without windows or closets. He indulged in this extravagance in diet, when much less expensive food materials, such as regularly come upon the tables of men of wealth, would have been just as nutritious, just as wholesome, and in every way just as good, save in the gratification to pride and palate. He was committing an immense economic blunder. Like thousands of others, he did so in the belief that it was wise and economical.
The sad side of the story is that the poor are the ones who practice the worst economy in the purchase as well as the use of food. The Massachusetts Bureau of Labor, in collecting the dietaries above referred to, made numerous inquiries of tradesmen regarding the food of the poor in Boston, meaning by poor "those who earn just enough to keep themselves and families from want." The almost universal testimony was, "They usually want the best and pay for it, and the most fastidious are those who can least afford it." The costliest kind of meat, the finest flour, and very highest priced butter were demanded, and many scorned the less expensive meats and groceries such as well-to-do and sensible people were in the habit of buying.
I have taken occasion to verify these observations by personal inquiry in Boston markets. One intelligent meat man gave his experience with a poor seamstress, who insisted on buying tenderloin steak at 60 cents per pound. He tried to persuade her that other parts of the meat were just as nutritive, as they really are, but she would not believe him; and when he urged the wiser economy of using them, she became angry at him for what she regarded as a reflection upon her dignity. "My wealthy customers," said he, "take our cheaper cuts, but I have got through trying to sell these economical meats to that woman and others of her class."
I am told that people in the poorer parts of New York City buy the highest priced groceries, and that the meat men say they can sell the coarser cuts of meat to the rich, but that people of moderate means refuse them. I hear the same thing in Washington and other cities.
One-sidedness of Our Dietary.—I have said that our diet is one-sided, that the food which we actually eat has relatively too little protein and too much fat, starch, and sugar. In other words, it is relatively deficient in the materials which make muscle and bone and contains a relative excess of the fuel ingredients. This is due partly to our large consumption of sugar and partly to our use of such large quantities of fat meats.
Overeating—Injury to Health.—But the most remarkable thing about our food consumption is the quantity. The American dietaries examined in this inquiry were of people living at the time in Massachusetts and Connecticut, though many came from other parts of the country. It would be wrong to take their eating habits as an exact measure of those of people throughout the United States. For that matter, a great deal of careful observation will be needed to show precisely what and how much is used by persons of different classes in different regions. Just this kind of study in different parts of the country is greatly needed. But such facts as I have been able to gather seem to imply that the figures obtained indicate in a general way the character of our food consumption. Of the over 50 dietaries of reasonably well-to-do people thus far examined the smallest is that of a mechanic's family. In this the potential energy per man per day was about 3,000 calories. The next smallest was that of the family of a chemist who had been studying the subject and had learned something of the excessive amounts of food which many people with light muscular labor consume. This dietary supplied 3,200 calories of energy per man a day. The largest was that of brickmakers at very severe work in Massachusetts. They lived in a boarding house managed by their employers, who had evidently found that men at hard muscular work out of doors needed ample nourishment to do the largest amount of work. The food supplied 8,850 calories per day.
Voit's standard for a laboring man at moderate work, which is based upon the observation of the food of wage workers, who are counted in Germany as well paid and well fed, allows 118 grammes of protein and 3,055 calories of energy. The standards proposed by myself, in which the studies of American dietaries have been taken into account, allow 125 grammes of protein and 3,500 calories of energy for a man at moderately hard muscular work. The dietaries of Massachusetts and Connecticut factory operatives, day laborers and mechanics at moderate work averaged about 125 grammes of protein and 4,500 calories of energy. For a man at "severe" work, Voit's standard calls for 145 grammes of protein and 3,370 calories of energy.
The Massachusetts and Connecticut mechanics at "hard" and "severe" work had from 180 to 520 grammes of protein and from 5,000 to 7,800 calories of potential energy, and in one case they rose to the 8,500 just quoted. In the dietary standards proposed by myself it did not seem to me permissible to assign less than 4,000 calories to that 1for a working man at "hard," and 5,700 for a man at "severe" work.
Now it is not easy to see why these men required so much more than was sufficient to nourish abundantly men of like occupation, but unlike temptation to overeating, in Europe. Difference in climate cannot account for it. We are a little more given to muscular exercise here, which is very well for us, but it cannot justify our eating so much.... I think the answer to this question is found in the conditions in which we live. Food is plenty. Holding to a tradition which had its origin where food was less abundant, that the natural instinct is the measure of what we should eat, we follow the dictates of the palate. Living in the midst of abundance, our diet has not been regulated by the restraints which obtain with the great majority of the people of the Old World, where food is dear and incomes are small.
Indeed, the very progress which we are making in our civilization brings with it increased temptation to overeating. The four quarters of the earth are ransacked to supply us with the things which will most tempt our appetites, and the utmost effort of cooks and housewives is used in the same direction. It is all the more fitting, therefore, that information as to our excesses and the ways of avoiding them should come at the same time.
How much harm is done to health by our one-sided and excessive diet no one can say. Physicians tell us that it is very great. Of the vice of overeating, Sir Henry Thompson, a noted English physician and authority on the subject, says:
"I have come to the conclusion that more than half the disease which embitters the middle and latter part of life is due to avoidable errors in diet, ... and that more mischief in the form of actual disease, of impaired vigor, and of shortened life accrues to civilized man ... in England and throughout central Europe from erroneous habits of eating than from the habitual use of alcoholic drink, considerable as I know that evil to be."
This is in the fullest accord with the opinions of physicians and hygienists who have given the most attention to the subject, and these opinions are exactly parallel with the statistics here cited.
Waste of Food in American Households.—The direct waste of food occurs in two ways, in eating more than is needed and in throwing away valuable material in the form of kitchen and table refuse. That which is thrown away does no harm to health, and in so far as part of it may be fed to animals or otherwise utilized, it is not an absolute loss. That which we consume in excess of our need of nourishment is worse than wasted, because of the injury it does to health. A few instances taken from the investigations mentioned above will help to illustrate the waste of food.
One of the dietaries examined by the Massachusetts Labor Bureau was that of a machinist in Boston, who earned $3.25 per day. In food purchased the dietary furnished 182 grammes of protein and 5,640 calories of energy per man per day, at a cost of 47 cents. One-half the meats, fish, lard, milk, butter, cheese, eggs, sugar, and molasses would have been represented by 57 grammes of protein, 1,650 calories, and 19 cents. If these had been subtracted, the record would have stood at 125 grammes, 3,990 calories, and 28 cents. This family might have dispensed with one-half of all their meats, fish, eggs, dairy products, and sugar, saved 40 per cent. of the whole cost of their food, and still have had all the protein and much more energy than is called for by a standard which is supposed to be decidedly liberal.
In the instance just cited no attempt was made to learn how much of the food purchased was actually consumed and how much was rejected. In some of the dietaries published by the Massachusetts bureau such estimates were made. That of a students' club in a New England college will serve as an example.
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