The Chemistry of Food and Nutrition

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Title: The Chemistry of Food and Nutrition
Author: Duncan, A. W.
Language: English
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NUTRITION***

THE CHEMISTRY OF FOOD AND NUTRITION

A. W. DUNCAN, F.C.S.
Analytical Chemist.

Manchester
The Vegetarian Society

1905

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PREFACE.

The first edition of 1884 contained but 5 pages of type; the second of
1898, 14 pages. Only by conciseness has it been possible to give even a
summary of the principles of dietetics within the limit or this pamphlet.
Should there appear in places an abruptness or incompleteness of
treatment, these limitations must be my excuse.

Those who wish to thoroughly study the science of food are referred to the
standard work, "Food and Dietetics," by Dr. R. Hutchison (E. Arnold,
16s.). The effects of purin bodies in producing illness has been patiently
and thoroughly worked out by Dr. Alexander Haig. Students are referred to
his "Uric Acid, an epitome of the subject" (J. & A. Churchhill, 1904,
2s.6d.), or to his larger work on "Uric Acid." An able scientific summary
of investigations on purins, their chemical and pathological properties,
and the quantities in foods will be found in "The Purin Bodies of Food
Stuffs," by Dr. I. Walker Hall (Sherratt & Hughes, Manchester, 1903,
4s.6d.). The U.S. Department of Agriculture has made a large number of
elaborate researches on food and nutrition. My thanks are due to Mr.
Albert Broadbent, the Secretary of the Vegetarian Society, for placing
some of their bulletins in my hands, and for suggestions and help. He has
also written several useful popular booklets on food of a very practical
character, at from a penny to threepence each.

Popular literature abounds in unsound statements on food. It is
unfortunate that many ardent workers in the cause of health are lacking
in scientific knowledge, especially of physiology and chemistry. By their
immature and sweeping statements from the platform and press, they often
bring discredit on a good cause. Matters of health must be primarily based
on experience and we must bear in mind that each person can at the most
have full knowledge of himself alone, and to a less degree of his family
and intimates. The general rules of health are applicable to all alike,
but not in their details. Owing to individual imperfections of
constitution, difference of temperament and environment, there is danger
when one man attempts to measure others by his own standard.

For the opinions here expressed I only must be held responsible, and not
the Society publishing the pamphlet.

Vegetarians, generally, place the humane as the highest reason for their
practice, though the determining cause of the change from a flesh diet has
been in most cases bad health.

A vegetarian may be defined as one who abstains from all animals as food.
The term animal is used in its proper scientific sense (comprising
insects, molluscs, crustaceans, fish, etc.). Animal products are not
excluded, though they are not considered really necessary. They are
looked upon as a great convenience, whilst free from nearly all the
objections appertaining to flesh food.

A.W.D.

The Chemistry of Food and Nutrition

By A.W. DUNCAN, F.C.S.

We may define a food to be any substance which will repair the functional
waste of the body, increase its growth, or maintain the heat, muscular,
and nervous energy. In its most comprehensive sense, the oxygen of the air
is a food; as although it is admitted by the lungs, it passes into the
blood, and there re-acts upon the other food which has passed through the
stomach. It is usual, however, to restrict the term food to such nutriment
as enters the body by the intestinal canal. Water is often spoken of as
being distinct from food, but for this there is no sufficient reason.

Many popular writers have divided foods into flesh-formers, heat-givers,
and bone-formers. Although attractive from its simplicity, this
classification will not bear criticism. Flesh-formers are also
heat-givers. Only a portion of the mineral matter goes to form bone.

Class I.--INORGANIC COMPOUNDS.
Sub-class 1. Water. 2. Mineral Matter or Salts.
Class II--ORGANIC COMPOUNDS.
1. Non-Nitrogeneous or Ternary Compounds. _a_ Carbohydrates.
_b_ Oils. _c_ Organic Acids.
2. Nitrogenous Compounds. _a_ Proteids. _b_ Osseids.
Class III.--NON-NUTRITIVES, FOOD ADJUNCTS AND DRUGS.
Essential Oils, Alkaloids, Extractives, Alcohol, &c.

These last are not strictly foods, if we keep to the definition already
given; but they are consumed with the true foods or nutrients, comprised
in the other two classes, and cannot well be excluded from consideration.

Water forms an essential part of all the tissues of the body. It is the
solvent and carrier of other substances.

Mineral Matter or Salts, is left as an ash when food is thoroughly
burnt. The most important salts are calcium phosphate, carbonate and
fluoride, sodium chloride, potassium phosphate and chloride, and compounds
of magnesium, iron and silicon.

Mineral matter is quite as necessary for plant as for animal life, and is
therefore present in all food, except in the case of some highly-prepared
ones, such as sugar, starch and oil. Children require a good proportion of
calcium phosphate for the growth of their bones, whilst adults require
less. The outer part of the grain of cereals is the richest in mineral
constituents, white flour and rice are deficient. Wheatmeal and oatmeal
are especially recommended for the quantity of phosphates and other salts
contained in them. Mineral matter is necessary not only for the bones but
for every tissue of the body.

When haricots are cooked, the liquid is often thrown away, and the beans
served nearly dry, or with parsley or other sauce. Not only is the food
less tasty but important saline constituents are lost. The author has made
the following experiments:--German whole lentils, Egyptian split red
lentils and medium haricot beans were soaked all night (16 hours) in just
sufficient cold water to keep them covered. The water was poured off and
evaporated, the residue heated in the steam-oven to perfect dryness and
weighed. After pouring off the water, the haricots were boiled in more
water until thoroughly cooked, the liquid being kept as low as possible.
The liquid was poured off as clear as possible, from the haricots,
evaporated and dried. The ash was taken in each case, and the alkalinity
of the water-soluble ash was calculated as potash (K_{2}O). The quantity
of water which could be poured off was with the German lentils, half as
much more than the original weight of the pulse; not quite as much could
be poured off the others.

G. Lentils. E. Lentils. Haricots. Cooked H.
Proportion of liquid 1.5 1.25 1.20 --
Soluble dry matter 0.97 3.38 1.43 7.66 per cent.
Ash 0.16 0.40 0.28 1.26 " "
Alkalinity as K_{2}O 0.02 0.082 0.084 0.21 " "

The loss on soaking in cold water, unless the water is preserved, is seen
to be considerable. The split lentils, having had the protecting skin
removed, lose most. In every case the ash contained a good deal of
phosphate and lime. Potatoes are rich in important potash salts; by
boiling a large quantity is lost, by steaming less and by baking in the
skins, scarcely any. The flavour is also much better after baking.

The usual addition of common salt (sodium-chloride) to boiled potatoes is
no proper substitute for the loss of their natural saline constituents.
Natural and properly cooked foods are so rich in sodium chloride and other
salts that the addition of common salt is unnecessary. An excess of the
latter excites thirst and spoils the natural flavour of the food. It is
the custom, especially in restaurants, to add a large quantity of salt to
pulse, savoury food, potatoes and soups. Bakers' brown bread is usually
very salt, and sometimes white is also. In some persons much salt causes
irritation of the skin, and the writer has knowledge of the salt food of
vegetarian restaurants causing or increasing dandruff. As a rule, fondness
for salt is an acquired taste, and after its discontinuance for a time,
food thus flavoured becomes unpalatable.

Organic Compounds are formed by living organisms (a few can also be
produced by chemical means). They are entirely decomposed by combustion.

The Non-Nitrogenous Organic Compounds are commonly called carbon
compounds or heat-producers, but these terms are also descriptive of the
nitrogenous compounds. These contain carbon, hydrogen and oxygen only, and
furnish by their oxidation or combustion in the body the necessary heat,
muscular and nervous energy. The final product of their combustion is
water and carbon dioxide (carbonic acid gas).

The Carbohydrates comprise starch, sugar, gum, mucilage, pectose,
glycogen, &c.; cellulose and woody fibre are carbohydrates, but are little
capable of digestion. They contain hydrogen and oxygen in the proportion
to form water, the carbon alone being available to produce heat by
combustion. Starch is the most widely distributed food. It is insoluble in
water, but when cooked is readily digested and absorbed by the body.
Starch is readily converted into sugar, whether in plants or animals,
during digestion. There are many kinds of sugar, such as grape, cane and
milk sugars.

The Oils and Fats consist of the same elements as the carbohydrates,
but the hydrogen is in larger quantity than is necessary to form water,
and this surplus is available for the production of energy. During their
combustion in the body they produce nearly two-and-a-quarter times (4 :
8.9 = 2.225) as much heat as the carbohydrates; but if eaten in more than
small quantities, they are not easily digested, a portion passing away by
the intestines. The fat in the body is not solely dependent upon the
quantity consumed as food, as an animal may become quite fat on food
containing none. A moderate quantity favours digestion and the bodily
health. In cold weather more should be taken. In the Arctic regions the
Esquimaux consume enormous quantities. Nuts are generally rich in oil.
Oatmeal contains more than any of the other cereals (27 analyses gave from
8 to 12.3 per cent.)

The most esteemed and dearest oil is Almond. What is called Peach-kernel
oil (Oleum Amygdalæ Persicæ), but which in commerce includes the oil
obtained from plum and apricot stones, is almost as tasteless and useful,
whilst it is considerably cheaper. It is a very agreeable and useful food.
It is often added to, as an adulterant, or substituted for the true Almond
oil. The best qualities of Olive oil are much esteemed, though they are
not as agreeable to English taste as the oil previously mentioned. The
best qualities are termed Virgin, Extra Sublime and Sublime. Any that has
been exposed for more than a short time to the light and heat of a shop
window should be rejected, as the flavour is affected. It should be kept
in a cool place. Not only does it vary much in freedom from acid and
rancidity, but is frequently adulterated. Two other cheaper oils deserve
mention. The "cold-drawn" Arachis oil (pea-nut or earth-nut oil) has a
pleasant flavour, resembling that of kidney beans. The "cold-drawn" Sesamé
oil has an agreeable taste, and is considered equal to Olive oil for
edible purposes. The best qualities are rather difficult to obtain; those
usually sold being much inferior to Peach-kernel and Olive oils.
Cotton-seed oil is the cheapest of the edible ones. Salad oil, not sold
under any descriptive name, is usually refined Cotton-seed oil, with
perhaps a little Olive oil to impart a richer flavour.

The solid fats sold as butter and lard substitutes, consist of deodorised
cocoanut oil, and they are excellent for cooking purposes. It is claimed
that biscuits, &c., made from them may be kept for a much longer period,
without showing any trace of rancidity, than if butter or lard had been
used. They are also to be had agreeably flavoured by admixture with
almond, walnut, &c., "cream."

The better quality oils are quite as wholesome as the best fresh butter,
and better than most butter as sold. Bread can be dipped into the oil, or
a little solid vegetable fat spread on it. The author prefers to pour a
little Peach-kernel oil upon some ground walnut kernels (or other ground
nuts in themselves rich in oil), mix with a knife to a suitable
consistency and spread upon the bread. Pine-kernels are very oily, and can
be used in pastry in the place of butter or lard.

Whenever oils are mentioned, without a prefix, the fixed or fatty oils are
always understood. The volatile or essential oils are a distinct class.
Occasionally, the fixed oils are called hydrocarbons, but hydrocarbon
oils are quite different and consist of carbon and hydrogen alone. Of
these, petroleum is incapable of digestion, whilst others are poisonous.

Vegetable Acids are composed of the same three elements and undergo
combustion into the same compounds as the carbohydrates. They rouse the
appetite, stimulate digestion, and finally form carbonates in combination
with the alkalies, thus increasing the alkalinity of the blood. The chief
vegetable acids are: malic acid, in the apple, pear, cherry, &c.; citric
acid, in the lemon, lime, orange, gooseberry, cranberry, strawberry,
raspberry, &c.; tartaric acid, in the grape, pineapple, &c.

Some place these under Class III. or food adjuncts. Oxalic acid (except
when in the insoluble state of calcium oxalate), and several other acids
are poisonous.

Proteids or Albuminoids are frequently termed flesh-formers. They are
composed of nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and a small quantity of
sulphur, and are extremely complex bodies. Their chief function is to form
flesh in the body; but without previously forming it, they may be
transformed into fat or merely give rise to heat. They form the essential
part of every living cell.

Proteids are excreted from the body as water, carbon dioxide, urea, uric
acid, sulphates, &c.

The principal proteids of animal origin have their corresponding proteids
in the vegetable kingdom. Some kinds, whether of animal or vegetable
origin, are more easily digested than others. They have the same
physiological value from whichever kingdom they are derived.

The Osseids comprise ossein, gelatin, cartilage, &c., from bone, skin,
and connective issue. They approach the proteids in composition, but
unlike them they cannot form flesh or fulfil the same purpose in
nutrition. Some food chemists wish to call the osseids, albuminoids; what
were formerly termed albuminoids to be always spoken of as proteids only.

Jellies are of little use as food; not only is this because of the low
nutritive value of gelatin, but also on account of the small quantity
which is mixed with a large proportion of water.

The Vegetable Kingdom is the prime source of all organic food; water,
and to a slight extent salts, form the only food that animals can derive
directly from the inorganic kingdom. When man consumes animal food--a
sheep for example--he is only consuming a portion of the food which that
sheep obtained from grass, clover, turnips, &c. All the proteids of the
flesh once existed as proteids in the vegetables; some in exactly the same
chemical form.

Flesh contains no starch or sugar, but a small quantity of glycogen. The
fat in an animal is derived from the carbohydrates, the fats and the
proteids of the vegetables consumed. The soil that produced the herbage,
grain and roots consumed by cattle, in most cases could have produced food
capable of direct utilisation by man. By passing the product of the soil
through animals there is an enormous economic loss, as the greater part of
that food is dissipated in maintaining the life and growth; little remains
as flesh when the animal is delivered into the hands of the butcher. Some
imagine that flesh food is more easily converted into flesh and blood in
our bodies and is consequently more valuable than similar constituents in
vegetables, but such is not the case. Fat, whether from flesh or from
vegetables is digested in the same manner. The proteids of flesh, like
those of vegetables, are converted into peptone by the digestive
juices--taking the form of a perfectly diffusible liquid--otherwise they
could not be absorbed and utilised by the body. Thus the products of
digestion of both animal and vegetable proteids and fats are the same.
Formerly, proteid matter was looked upon as the most valuable part of the
food, and a large proportion was thought necessary for hard work. It was
thought to be required, not only for the construction of the muscle
substance, but to be utilised in proportion to muscular exertion. These
views are now known to be wrong. A comparatively small quantity of proteid
matter, such as is easily obtained from vegetable food, is ample for the
general needs of the body. Increased muscular exertion requires but a
slight increase of this food constituent. It is the carbohydrates, or
carbohydrates and fats that should be eaten in larger quantity, as these
are the main source of muscular energy. The fact that animals, capable of
the most prolonged and powerful exertion, thrive on vegetables of
comparatively low proteid value, and that millions of the strongest races
have subsisted on what most Englishmen would consider a meagre vegetarian
diet, should have been sufficient evidence against the earlier view.

A comparison of flesh and vegetable food, shows in flesh an excessive
quantity of proteid matter, a very small quantity of glycogen (the animal
equivalent of starch and sugar) and a variable quantity of fat. Vegetable
food differs much, but as a rule it contains a much smaller quantity of
proteid matter, a large proportion of starch and sugar and a small
quantity of fat. Some vegetable foods, particularly nuts, contain much
fat.

Investigation of the digestive processes has shown that the carbohydrates
and fats entail little strain on the system; their ultimate products are
water and carbon dioxide, which are easily disposed of. The changes which
the proteids undergo in the body are very complicated. There is ample
provision in the body for their digestion, metabolism, and final
rejection, when taken in moderate quantity, as is the case in a dietary of
vegetables. The proteids in the human body, after fulfilling their
purpose, are in part expelled in the same way as the carbohydrates; but
the principal part, including all the nitrogen, is expelled by the kidneys
in the form of urea (a very soluble substance), and a small quantity of
uric acid in the form of quadurates.

There is reciprocity between the teeth and digestive organs of animals and
their natural food. The grasses, leaves, &c., which are consumed by the
herbivora, contain a large proportion of cellulose and woody tissue.
Consequently, the food is bulky; it is but slowly disintegrated and the
nutritious matter liberated and digested. The cellulose appears but
slightly acted upon by the digestive juices. The herbivora possess
capacious stomachs and the intestines are very long. The carnivora have
simpler digestive organs and short intestines. Even they consume
substances which leave much indigestible residue, such as skin, ligaments
and bones, but civilised man, when living on a flesh dietary removes as
much of such things as possible. The monkeys, apes, and man (comprised in
the order _Primates_) have a digestive canal intermediate in complexity
and in length to the herbivora and carnivora. A certain quantity of
indigestible matter is necessary for exciting peristaltic action of the
bowels. The carnivora with their short intestinal canal need the least,
the frugivora more, and the herbivora a much larger quantity. The
consumption by man of what is commonly called concentrated food is the
cause of the constipation to which flesh-eating nations are subject. Most
of the pills and other nostrums which are used in enormous quantities
contain aloes or other drugs which stimulate the action of the intestines.

Highly manufactured foods, from which as much as possible of the
non-nutritious matter has been removed is often advocated, generally by
those interested in its sale. Such food would be advantageous only if it
were possible to remove or modify a great part of our digestive canal (we
are omitting from consideration certain diseased conditions, when such
foods may be useful). The eminent physiologist and bacteriologist, Elie
Metchnikoff, has given it as his opinion that much of man's digestive
organs is not only useless but often productive of derangement and
disease. In several cases where it has been necessary, in consequence of
serious disease, to remove the entire stomach or a large part of the
intestines, the digestive functions have been perfectly performed. It is
not that our organs are at fault, but our habits of life differ from that
of our progenitors. In past times, when a simple dietary in which flesh
food formed little or no part, and to-day, in those countries where one
wholly or nearly all derived from vegetable sources and simply prepared is
the rule, diseases of the digestive organs are rare. The Englishman going
to a tropical country and partaking largely of flesh and alcohol, suffers
from disease of the liver and other organs, to which the natives and the
few of his own countrymen, living in accordance with natural laws are
strangers.

Indigestible Matter--Food is never entirely digested. As a reason
against confining ourselves solely to vegetable food, it has been stated
that such is less perfectly digested than animal food and that it
therefore throws more work on the digestive organs. It is also urged that
on this account a greater quantity of vegetable food is required. We have
shown elsewhere that, on the contrary, vegetarians are satisfied with a
smaller amount of food. Man requires a small quantity of woody fibre or
cellulose in his food to stimulate intestinal action and prevent
constipation.

It is difficult to determine how much of a food is unassimilated in the
body. This is for the reason of the intestinal refuse consisting not only
of undigested food, but also of residues of the digestive juices, mucus
and epithelial debris. These latter have been shown to amount to from
one-third to one-half of the whole of the fæces, which is much more than
had previously been supposed.

John Goodfellow has shown that of very coarse wholemeal bread quite 14 per
cent. was undigested, whilst bread made from ordinary grade wholemeal
showed 12.5 per cent. Such a method of analysis was adopted as it was
believed would exclude other than the food waste. The experiments were
made on a person who was eating nothing but the bread. It seems probable
that a smaller proportion would have remained unassimilated had the bread
not formed the sole food. It is advisable that wheatmeal he ground as
finely as possible, the coarse is not only to a less extent assimilated
but apt to irritate the bowels. Notwithstanding that fine white bread gave
only 4.2 per cent. and a coarse white bread 4.9 per cent. of waste, a fine
wheatmeal bread is more economical as the same quantity of wheat produces
a greater weight of flour richer in proteid and mineral matter. From a
large number of experiments with man, it has been calculated that of
proteids there is digested when animal food is eaten 98 per cent., from
cereals and sugars 8 per cent., from vegetables and fruits 80 per cent.
The difference between the proportions digested of the other food
constituents was much less. Although there is here a theoretical advantage
in favour of animal food, there are other considerations of far more
importance than a little undigestible waste. The main question is one of
health. In some dietary experiments of a girl aged 7, living upon a fruit
diet, of whom we have given some particulars elsewhere, Professor Jaffa
gives the following particulars. During the ten days trial the percentages
absorbed were proteids 82.5, fat 86.9, nitrogen free extract 96, crude
fibre 80, ash 5.7, heat of combustion in calories 86.7. He says,
"generally speaking, the food was quite thoroughly assimilated, the
coefficients of digestibility being about the same as are found in an
ordinary mixed diet. It is interesting to note that 80 per cent. of the
crude fibre appeared to be digested. The results of a number of foreign
experiments on the digestibility of crude fibre by man are from 30 to 91.4
per cent., the former value being from mixed wheat and rye, and the latter
in a diet made of rice, vegetables and meat."

TABLE OF ANALYSIS OF FOOD

Key:
P = Proteins.
Cb = Carbohydrates.
C = Cellulose.
R = Refuse.
W = Water.
Ca = Calories.

Nt'nt
P. Fat. Cb. Ash. C R W Ca Ratio
Wholemeal, G. 14.9 1.6 66.2 1.7 1.6 ... 14.0 1577 4.68
Fine Flour, G. 9.3 0.8 76.5 0.7 0.7 ... 12.0 1629 8.4
Medium Flour, G. 12.1 0.9 72.2 0.9 0.9 ... 13.0 1606 6.13
Bread,
Wholemeal, G. 12.2 1.2 43.5 1.3 1.8 ... 40.0 1086 3.8
Bread, White, G. 7.5 0.8 53.8 0.9 ... ... 37.0 1174 7.4
Macaroni, U. 13.4 0.9 74.1 1.3 ... ... 10.3 1665 5.67
Oatmeal, D. 14.8 9.6 63.3 2.2 1.4 ... 8.7 1858 5.72
Maize,
American, S. 10.0 4.25 71.75 1.5 1.75 ... 10.75 1700 8.12
Rice, husked, U. 8.0 0.3 79.0 0.4 ... ... 12.3 1630 10.0
Rye Flour, U. 6.8 0.9 78.3 0.7 0.4 ... 12.9 1620 11.8
Barley,
Pearl, C. 6.2 1.3 76.0 1.1 0.8 ... 14.6 1584 12.7
Buckwheat
Flour, U. 6.4 1.2 77.9 0.9 ... ... 13.6 1619 12.6
Soy Bean, C. 35.3 18.9 26.0 4.6 4.2 ... 11.0 1938 1.93
Pea-nut, C. 24.5 50.0 11.7 1.8 4.5 ... 7.5 2783 5.2
Lentils, U. 25.7 1.0 59.2 5.7 ... ... 8.4 1621 2.4
Peas, dried, U. 24.6 1.0 62.0 2.9 4.5 ... 9.5 1655 2.6
Peas,
green, E.U. 7.0 0.5 15.2 1.0 1.7 ... 74.6 465 2.3
Haricots, C. 23.0 2.3 52.3 2.9 5.5 ... 14.0 1463 2.5
Walnuts,
fresh k., C. 12.5 31.6 8.9 1.7 0.8 ... 44.5 1563 6.33
Walnut kernels 21.4 54.1 15.2 2.9 1.4 ... 5.0 2964 6.33
Filberts,
fresh ker., C. 8.4 28.5 11.1 1.5 2.5 ... 48.0 1506 8.9
Tomatoes, U. 1.2 0.2 3.5 0.6 0.5 ... 94.0 105 3.3
Grapes, U. 1.0 1.2 10.1 0.4 4.3 25 58.0 335 12.8
Apples, E.U. 0.4 0.5 13.0 0.3 1.2 (25) 84.6 290 35.3
Raisins, E U. 2.6 3.3 76.1 3.4 ... (10) 14.6 1605 32.0
Dates, E.U. 2.1 2.8 78.4 1.3 ... (10) 15.4 1615 40.0
Banana, C.D. 1.71 ... 20.13 0.71 1.74 ... 75.7 406 11.7
Banana Flour, P. 3.13 1.73 82.4 5.93 1.21 ... 5.6 1664 27.5
Potatoes, K. 1.9 0.2 20.7 1.0 0.7 ... 75.7 429 11.0
Turnips, E. 1.3 0.2 6.8 0.8 1.3 (30) 89.6 159 5.57
Onions, E.U. 1.6 0.3 9.1 0.6 0.8 (10) 87.6 225 6.1
Cabbage, E U. 1.6 0.3 4.5 1.0 1.1 (15) 91.5 123 3.23
Asparagus, U. 1.5 0.1 2.3 1.2 0.5 ... 94.4 85 1.7
Celery, E.U. 1.1 0.1 3.3 1.0 ... (20) 94.5 85 3.2
Mushrooms, U. 3.5 0.4 6.8 1.2 ... ... 88.1 210 2.2
Tapioca, U. 0.4 0.1 88.0 0.1 ... ... 11.4 1650 220
Sugar ... ... 100 ... ... ... ... 1860 ...
Oil ... 100 ... ... ... ... ... 4220 ...
Milk 3.6 3.7 4.6 0.73 ... ... 87.4 309 3.56
Butter, fresh 0.8 83.5 1.5 0.2 ... ... 14.0 3566 234
Cheese, U. 25.9 33.7 2.4 3.8 ... ... 34.2 1950 3.0
Hen's Eggs, U. 11.9 9.3 ... 0.9 ... 11.2 65.5 635 1.74
Beef, loin, U. 16.4 16.9 ... 0.9 ... 13.3 52.9 1020 2.3
Beef, loin, edible
p., U. 19.0 19.1 ... 1.0 ... ... 61.3 1155 2.3
Mutton,
shoulder, U. 13.7 17.1 ... 0.7 ... 22.1 46.8 975 2.77
Pork, Ham, U. 14.3 29.7 ... 0.8 ... 10.3 45.1 1520 4.6
Bacon, smoked, U. 9.5 59.4 ... 4.5 ... 8.7 18.4 2685 13.9
Fowl, U. 13.7 12.3 ... 0.7 ... 25.9 47.1 775 2.0
Goose, U. 13.4 29.8 ... 0.7 ... 17.6 38.5 1505 4.9
Cod, dressed, U. 11.1 0.2 ... 0.8 ... 29.9 58.5 215 0.04
Mackerel, whole, U. 10.2 4.2 ... 0.7 ... 44.7 40.4 365 9.13
Oysters, L. 8.75 0.92 8.09 2.4 ... ... 79.8 352 1.16

NOTES ON THE TABLE OF ANALYSIS.--Under calories are shown kilo-calories
per pound of food. In the analysis marked U the crude fibre or cellulose
is included with the carbo-hydrate, the figures being those given in
Atwater's table. He has found that from 30 to 91 per cent. of the crude
fibre was digested, according to the kind of food. The term fibre or
cellulose in analytical tables is not a very definite one. It depends upon
the details of the method of analysis. In the analyses other than U, the
cellulose is excluded in calculating the calories. Nutrient ratio is the
proportion of the sum of the carbo-hydrate and fat, compared with the
proteid as 1. The fat has first been multiplied by 2.225 to bring it to
the same nutrient value as the carbo-hydrate.

U indicates that the analyses are taken from the United States Department
of Agriculture Experimental Station, Bulletin 28, the tests being chiefly
made by Dr. W.O. Atwater, or under his direction. They are average
analyses of several samples. The refuse consists of such parts as are
rejected in preparing the food; the outer leaves, skin, stalk, seeds, &c.,
of vegetables; the shell of eggs; the bone, &c., of meat. E, indicates
that the edible portion only of the food has been analysed, and under
refuse, in brackets, is shown the quantity rejected before the analysis
was made.

There is considerable variation in the same kind of food, according to the
variety of seed and conditions of growth &c., especially is this the case
with wheat and flour; whenever it has been possible the average of the
analyses of many samples have been given. The method of analysis has not
always been uniform, frequently the cellulose is included with the
carbo-hydrates, and the proteid sometimes includes a very appreciable
quantity of non-proteid nitrogenous matter. This is the case in the
analysis of the mushrooms. G.--Analyses are by John Goodfellow; it will be
noticed that the wheatmeal bread is not made from the same flour as the
whole-meal. D.--B. Dyer, average of 19 fine and coarse oatmeals. S, from
U.S. Cons. Reports, 1899. C.--A.H. Church. The walnut kernels are in the
dried condition as purchased; originally of the same composition as shewn
in the fresh kernels. C.D.--Cavendish or Figi variety of banana, analysis
by D.W.M. Doherty, N.S. Wales. P.--A. Petermann, U.S. Cons. Banana flour,
_musca paradisiaca_ variety. This is widely used in Central America. The
flour is from the unripe fruit, and contains starch 45.7 per cent.; on
ripening the starch is converted into sugar. K.--Konig, mean of 90
analysis. Milk:--Average of many thousand analyses of the pure.
Butter.--Made without salt. L, from the "Lancet," 1903, I, p. 72. Oysters
at 2/6 per dozen. The 8.09 per cent. includes 0.91 glycogen (animal
starch). The shell was of course excluded, also the liquid in the shell.
Apples.--The refuse includes seeds, skin, &c., and such edible portion as
is wasted in cutting them away; the analysis was made on the rest.

Cookery.--Flesh is easier to digest raw. A few, on the advice of their
doctors, eat minced raw flesh, raw beef juice and even fresh warm blood.
Such practice is abhorrent to every person of refinement. Cooking lessens
the offensive appearance and qualities of flesh and changes the flavour;
thorough cooking also destroys any parasites that may be present. Raw
flesh is more stimulating to the animal passions, and excites ferocity in
both man and animals. If the old argument was valid, that as flesh is much
nearer in composition and quality to our own flesh and tissues, it is
therefore our best food, we do wrong in coagulating the albuminoids,
hardening the muscle substance and scorching it by cooking.

Fruits when ripe and in good condition are best eaten raw; cooking spoils
the flavour. Food requiring mastication and encouraging insalivation is
the best. Food is frequently made too sloppy or liquid, and is eaten too
hot, thus favouring indigestion and decay of the teeth. The cereals and
pulses can only with difficulty be eaten raw. When cooked in water the
starch granules swell and break up, the plant cells are ruptured, the
fibres are separated and the nutritious matter rendered easy of digestion.
The flavour is greatly improved. Cooking increases our range and variety
of food. The civilised races use it to excess and over-season their
dishes, favouring over-eating.

If baking powders are used they should only be of the best makes. They
should be composed of sodium bicarbonate and tartaric acid, in such
correct proportions that upon the addition of water only sodium tartrate
and carbon dioxide (carbonic acid) should result. Some powders contain an
excess of sodium bicarbonate. Self-raising flours should be avoided. They
are commonly composed of--in addition to sodium bicarbonate--acid calcium
phosphate, calcium superphosphate and calcium sulphate. Common baking
powders often consist of the same ingredients, and sometimes also of
magnesia and alum. These are often made and sold by ignorant men, whose
sole object is to make money. Calcium superphosphate and acid calcium
phosphate very frequently contain arsenic, and as the cheap commercial
qualities are often used there is danger in this direction. A good formula
for baking powder is, tartaric acid 8 ozs., sodium bicarbonate 9 ozs.,
rice flour 10 to 20 ozs. The last is added to baking powders to improve
the keeping quality and to add bulk. The ingredients must be first
carefully dried, the sodium bicarbonate at not too high a temperature or
it decomposes, and then thoroughly mixed; this must be preserved in well
closed and dry bottles. Another formula, which is slow rising and well
adapted for pastry, is sodium bicarbonate 4 ozs., cream of tartar 9 ozs.,
rice flour about 14 ozs. Custard powders consist of starch, colouring and
flavouring. Egg powders are similar to baking powders but contain yellow
colouring. Little objection can be taken to them if they are coloured with
saffron; turmeric would do if it were not that it gives a slightly
unpleasant taste. Artificial colouring matters or coal tar derivatives are
much used, several of these are distinctly poisonous.

Drinks.--It is better not to drink during eating, or insalivation may be
interfered with; a drink is better taken at the end of a meal. The
practice of washing down food with hot tea is bad. The refreshing nature
of a cup of hot tea, coffee, or cocoa is to a very great extent due to the
warmth of the water. The benefit is felt at once, before the alkaloid can
enter the blood stream and stimulate the nerve centres. Hot water, not too
hot to cause congestion of the mucous membrane, is one of the best drinks.
When the purity of the water supply is doubtful, there is advantage in
first bringing it to the boil, as pathogenic bacteria are destroyed. Some
find it beneficial to drink a cup of hot water the first thing in the
morning; this cleanses the stomach from any accumulation of mucus.

If fruit, succulent vegetables, or cooked food, containing much water be
freely used, and there be little perspiration, it is possible to do
without drinking; but there is danger of taking insufficient water to
hold freely in solution the waste products excreted by the body.

Aerated drinks, except a very few of the best, and non-alcoholic beers and
wines, are generally unwholesome, from their containing preservatives,
foaming powders, artificial flavourings, &c.

Stimulants.--Tea and coffee contain an alkaloid theine, besides volatile
oils, tannin, &c. Cocoa contains the milder alkaloid, theobromine. They
stimulate the heart and nervous systems; tea and coffee have also a
diuretic effect. Formerly they were erroneously thought to lessen tissue
waste. These alkaloids, being purins, are open to the general objections
named elsewhere. Stimulants do not impart energy or force of any kind, but
only call forth reserve strength by exciting the heart, nervous system,
&c., to increased activity. This is followed by a depression which is as
great, generally greater, than the previous stimulation. Except, perhaps,
as an occasional medicine, stimulants, should be avoided. Analysis of
cocoa shows a good proportion of proteids and a very large quantity of
fat. The claim that it is a valuable and nutritious food would only be
true if it could be eaten in such quantities as are other foods (bread,
fruits, &c.). Were this attempted, poisoning would result from the large
quantity of alkaloid. The food value of half a spoonful or thereabouts of
cocoa is insignificant. Certain much advertised cocoa mixtures are
ridiculous in their pretentions, unscientific in preparation, and often
injurious.

Cereals.--The most valuable is wheat, from its proteid being chiefly in
the form known as gluten. From its tenacity, gluten enables a much better
loaf to be produced from wheat than from any other cereal. The outer part
of the grain is the richest in mineral matter and proteid. Wheatmeal bread
shows a considerably higher proteid value than white. A large proportion
of the proteid in the outer coats of the wheat berry is, however, not
digested, and in some experiments the waste has been enough to quite
nullify its seeming advantage over white bread. Coarsely ground, sharp
branny particles in bread irritate the intestines, and cause excessive
waste of nutriment; but finely ground wheatmeal is free from this
objection, and is beneficial in preventing constipation. The comparative
value of white and brown bread has been much discussed; it depends both
on the quality of the bread and the condition of the digestive organs.
Experiments on the digestion of bread and other things, have often been
made on persons unaccustomed to such foods, or the foods have been given
in excessive quantity. To those accustomed to it good wheatmeal bread is
much pleasanter, more satisfying, and better flavoured than white; indeed,
the latter is described as insipid. Most bakers' bread is of
unsatisfactory quality. Flour and bread contain very little fat, the
absence of which is considered a defect. This is remedied by the addition
of butter, fat or oil, or by nuts, &c., which are rich in oil. These may
be mixed with the flour prior to cooking, or used afterwards.

Oats contain a substance called avenin, apparently an alkaloid, which has
an irritating action; the quantity is variable. It is to this that the
so-called heating effect of oatmeal on some persons is due.

Prepared Cereals or Breakfast Foods.--Analyses were made of 34 of these
cereal preparations by Weems and Ellis (Iowa State College Agricultural
Bulletin, 1904). They report that the foods possess no nutritive value in
excess of ordinary food materials; that the claim made for many
pre-digested foods are valueless, and no reliance can be placed on the
statement that they are remedies for any disease.

Oatmeal and other cereals are sold in packets as being partially cooked.
We do not doubt that they have been subjected to a dry heat, but this has
scarcely any effect on their starch and other constituents. The difference
is a mechanical one. In rolled oats the grains are so cracked and broken,
that on boiling with water, the water readily penetrates and more quickly
cooks them throughout. There are other prepared cereal foods, but we doubt
whether they are thoroughly cooked after the short boiling directed on the
labels. They are a great convenience where it is difficult to get the time
necessary for cooking the ordinary cereals. Coarsely ground wheat is too
irritating when made into porridge, but there are some granulated wheats
sold in packets, which are quite suitable. The Ralston breakfast food is
excellent. They are rich in the phosphates and salts, found in the outer
part of the grain. One cereal preparation called Grape Nuts, has had its
starch converted into maltose and dextrin (maltose being a sugar), by a
scientific application of the diastase of the grain. It is consequently
easier of digestion and requires no cooking. It is beneficial for some
forms of indigestion. There are several competing foods of less merit, the
starch being less perfectly changed; one at least of which is
objectionably salt. Properly cooked starch is readily digested by healthy
persons, and for them malted food is of no special value.

Pulse, or Legumes, includes haricots and other beans, peas and lentils.
The proteid contained is that variety known as legumin, which is either
the same, or is closely allied, to the casein of milk and cheese. Pulse is
very rich in proteid, the dried kinds in general use, contain 24 or 25 per
cent. The richest is the soy-bean, which is used in China and Japan, it
contains 35 per cent., besides 19 per cent. of fat. Pulse requires
thorough cooking, haricots taking the longest time. Split lentils are
cooked sooner, and are better digested; this is chiefly due to the removal
of the skins. The haricots, bought from small grocers who have a slow
sale, are often old, and will not cook tender. Pulse is best adapted to
the labouring classes; the sedentary should eat it sparingly, it is liable
to cause flatulence or accumulation of gas in the intestines, and
constipation. Haricots are easier to digest when mashed and mixed with
other food. Pulse was formerly stated to leave much undigested residue.
Recent experiments have shown that it is satisfactorily digested under
favourable conditions. Strümpell found beans in their skins to leave a
large proportion of proteid matter unabsorbed. Lentil meal mixed with
other food was digested in a perfectly satisfactory manner. Another
experimenter (Rubner) found that when even the very large quantity of
1-1/8 pound of dried split peas per day were eaten, only 17 per cent. of
proteid matter was unabsorbed, which compares very well with the 11 per
cent. of proteid left from a macaroni diet, with which the same man was
fed at another time. Had a reasonable quantity of peas been eaten per day,
the quantity undigested would probably have differed little from that of
other foods.

Nuts are, as a rule, very rich in oil and contain a fair proportion of
proteid; when well masticated they are a very valuable food. Walnuts are
one of the best, and the kernels can be purchased shelled, thus avoiding
much trouble. They can be finely ground in a nut-mill and used for several
purposes, mixed in the proportion of about two ounces to the pound of
wheatmeal they produce a rich flavoured bread. They can also he used in
sweet cakes and in rich puddings to increase their food value, lightness
and taste. Pine kernels being very oily, can be used with flour in the
place of lard or butter.

Fruits are generally looked upon as luxuries, rather than as food
capable of supplying a meal or a substantial part of one. They are usually
eaten only when the appetite has been appeased by what is considered more
substantial fare. Fresh fruits contain a larger proportion of water than
nearly all other raw foods, and consequently the proportion of
nourishment is small; but we must not despise them on this account. Milk
contains as much or more water. Certain foods which in the raw state
contain very little water, such as the pulses and cereals when cooked
absorb a very large quantity; this is particularly the case in making
porridge. Cabbage, cauliflower, Spanish onions and turnips, after cooking
contain even 97 per cent. of water. Roast beef contains on an average 48
per cent., and cooked round steak with fat removed 63 per cent. of water.
It is customary at meal times to drink water, tea, coffee, beer, wine, &c.
When a meal contains any considerable quantity of fresh fruits there need
be no desire to drink. Notwithstanding that fruits contain so much water,
a dietary consisting of fruits with nuts, to which may be added bread and
vegetables, will contain less water than the total quantity usually
consumed by a person taking the more customary highly cooked and seasoned
foods. An advantage is that the water in fruits is in a wholesome
condition, free from the pollution often met with in the water used for
drinking purposes. Raw fruits favour mastication, with its consequent
advantages, whilst cooked and soft food discourages it. Plums and what are
termed stone fruits, if eaten in more than very small quantities, are apt
to disagree. Persons with good digestions can take fruit with bread,
biscuits and with uncooked foods without any inconvenience. Fruit is more
likely to disagree when taken in conjunction with elaborately cooked
foods. Many cannot take fruit, especially if it be acid, at the same time
as cereal or starchy substances, and the difficulty is said to be greater
at the morning's meal. If the indigestion produced is due to the acid of
the fruit preventing the saliva acting on the starch, scientific
principles would direct that the fruit be eaten quite towards the end of
the meal. The same consideration condemns the use of mint sauce, cucumber
and vinegar, or pickles, with potatoes and bread, or even mint sauce with
green peas. Bananas are an exception, as not interfering with the
digestion of starch. Bananas are generally eaten in an unripe condition,
white and somewhat mealy; they should be kept until the starch has been
converted into sugar, when they are both more pleasant and wholesome. Nuts
and fruit go well together. For a portable meal, stoned raisins or other
dried fruit and walnut kernels or other nuts are excellent.

What has been called a defect in most fruits, is the fact that the proteid
is small in proportion to the other constituents. This has been too much
dwelt upon, owing to the prevailing exaggerated idea of the quantity of
proteid required. The tomato contains a large proportion, though the water
is very high. Bananas, grapes and strawberries contain to each part of
proteid from 10 to 12 parts of other solid nutritive constituents (any oil
being calculated into starch equivalents); this is termed the nutritive
ratio. Although this may seem a small proportion of proteid, there are
reasons for believing that it is sufficient. Taking the average of 29
analyses of American apples, a nutritive ratio of 33 was obtained. If it
were suggested that life should be sustained on apples alone, this small
quantity of proteid would be an insurmountable difficulty. As the addition
of nuts or other nutritious food sufficiently increases the proteid, no
objection can with justice be made against the use of fruit. A study of
our teeth, digestive organs and general structure, and of comparative
anatomy, points to fruits, nuts and succulent vegetables as our original
diet.

The potash and other salts of the organic acids in fruits tend to keep the
blood properly alkaline. Where there is a tendency to the deposition of
uric acid in the body, they hinder its formation. Citric, tartaric, malic
and other organic acids exist in fruits in combination with potash and
other bases, as well as in the free state. The free acids in fruits, when
eaten, combine with the alkalies in the intestinal tract, and are absorbed
by the body and pass into the blood, not as acids, but as neutral salts.
Here they are converted into potassium carbonate or some other carbonate.
Fruit acids never make the blood acid but the reverse. Fruit salts and
acids are antiscorbutic. Fruits have often proved of the greatest benefit
in illness. What is known as the grape cure has been productive of much
good. Lemons and oranges have also been of great benefit. Strawberries
have been craved for and have proved of the greatest advantage in some
extreme cases of illness when more concentrated food could not be endured.
Fruit is coming into greater use, especially owing to its better
distribution and lessened cost. Fruit is not as cheap as it should be, as
it can be produced in great abundance at little cost, and with
comparatively little labour. The price paid by the public greatly exceeds
the real cost of production. A very large proportion, often the greater
part of the cost to the consumer, goes in railway and other rates and in
middle-men's profits. It is commonly cheaper to bring fruit from over the
sea, including land carriage on either side, than it is to transport
English produce from one part of our country to another. English homegrown
fruit would be cheaper were it not for the difficulty of buying suitable
land at a reasonable price, and the cost of transit. For the production of
prime fruit there is a lack of sufficient intelligence, of scientific
culture and co-operation.

Vegetables--using the name in its popular sense--contain valuable saline
constituents or salts. By the usual method of cooking a large proportion
of the salts is lost. It is better to steam than to boil them. The fibrous
portion of vegetables is not all digested, but it is useful in stimulating
the peristaltic action of the bowels and lessening any tendency to
constipation. Vegetables are more especially useful to non-vegetarians to
correct the defects of their other food.

The potato belongs to a poisonous order--the _Solanacæ_. There is a little
alkaloid in the skin, but this is lost in the cooking. The eyes and
sprouting portions contain the most and should be cut out.

Fungi.--There are about a hundred edible species in this country, but
many of the fungi are poisonous, some intensely so. It can scarcely be
expected that these lowly organised plants, differing so much in their
manner of growth from the green or chlorophyll bearing plants, can be
particularly nourishing. It is only the fructifying part, which appears
above the ground, that is generally eaten. It is of very rapid growth. Of
9 edible fungi of 4 species, obtained in the Belgrade market, the average
amount of water was 89.3 per cent., leaving only 10.7 per cent. of solid
matter; the average of fat was 0.55 per cent. The food value of fungi has
been greatly over-rated. In most of the analyses given in text-books and
elsewhere, the total nitrogen has been multiplied by 6.25 and the result
expressed as proteid. The amount of nitrogen in a form useless for the
purpose of nutrition is about a third of the whole. Of the remainder or
proteid nitrogen, it is said much is not assimilated, sometimes quite
half, owing to the somewhat indigestible character of the fungi. An
analysis of the common mushroom gave proteids 2.2 per cent., amides
(useless nitrogenous compounds) 1.3 per cent., and water 93.7 per cent.
The fungi are of inferior nutritive value to many fresh vegetables and are
much more expensive. Their chief value is as a flavouring.

Milk and Eggs are permissible in a vegetarian dietary, and as a rule,
vegetarians use them. Eggs, with the exception of such as are unfertile,
are of course alive; but they have no conscious existence, and cannot be
said to suffer any pain on being killed and eaten. An objection to their
use as food is, that on an egg and poultry farm, the superfluous male
birds are killed, and as the hens become unprofitable layers they are also
killed. A similar humane objection applies to the use of cow's milk by
man. The calves are deprived of part of their natural food, the deficiency
being perhaps made up by unnatural farinaceous milk substitutes. Many of
the calves, especially the bull calves, are killed, thus leaving all the
milk for human use. When cows cease to yield sufficient milk they too are
slaughtered. Milch cows are commonly kept in unhealthy houses, deprived
of exercise and pure air, crowded together, with filthy evil smelling
floors reeking with their excrements, tended by uncleanly people. With no
exercise and a rich stimulating diet they produce more milk; but it is no
matter for surprise that tuberculosis is common amongst them. When the
lesions of tubercle (consumption) are localised and not excessive, the
rest of the carcase is passed by veterinary surgeons as fit for food; were
it otherwise, enormous quantities of meat would be destroyed. As butcher's
meat is seldom officially inspected, but a very small part is judged by
the butchers as too bad for food. In mitigation it may be said that
poultry lead a happy existence and their death is, or should be, quickly
produced with but little pain, probably less pain than if left to die from
natural causes. The same cannot be said of cattle and sheep when the time
arrives for their transport to the slaughter man's. It is argued by
vegetarians who take milk and animal products that they are not
responsible for the death of the animals, as they do not eat their flesh.
As vegetarians profit by conditions in which the slaughtering of the
animals is a part, they cannot be altogether exonerated. Cow's milk is
prone to absorb bad odours, and it forms a most suitable breeding or
nutrient medium for most species of bacteria which may accidentally get
therein. By means of milk many epidemics have been spread, of scarlet
fever, diphtheria, cholera, and typhoid. Occasionally milk contains
tubercle bacilli from the cows themselves. By boiling, all bacteria,
except a few which may be left out of consideration, are destroyed. Such
a temperature, however, renders the milk less digestible and wholesome for
infants. By heating to 160° F. or 170° F. for a few minutes, such
pathogenic germs as are at all likely to be in milk (tubercle, typhoid,
diphtheria, &c.) are killed, and the value of the milk is but little
affected: this is called Pasteurising. It was until quite recently a
common practice to add boric acid, formaldehyde and other preservatives;
this has injured the vitality and caused the death of many infants. They
have not yet gone quite out of use.

For infants the only satisfactory food is that of a healthy mother. On
account of physical defects in the mother, or often for merely selfish
reasons, the infant is deprived of its natural food. Many attempts have
been made to bring cow's milk to approximately the same composition as
human milk. It can be done by adding water, milk sugar and cream of known
composition, in certain proportions. Great difficulties are met with when
this is put into practice. The simplest method is that of Professor
Soxhlet. The proper quantity of milk sugar is added, but instead of adding
the right quantity of cream or fat--a very difficult thing to do--the
equivalent quantity of extra milk sugar is used. Although not
theoretically satisfactory, in practice it answers very well. We have
found it to agree very well with infants. To cow's milk of pure average
quality, add half its volume of water containing 12.3 per cent. of milk
sugar; or, what amounts to the same thing, to a pint of cow's milk add one
and a quarter ounce of milk sugar and half-a-pint of water. It is
preferable to Pasteurise by placing the bottle of milk in a vessel of
water. This water is to be heated until the milk shows a temperature of
about 75° C. or 165° F., but must not exceed 80° C. or a change in the
albumen of the milk takes place which affects its digestibility. Keep at
this temperature for about ten minutes. If not required at once, a plug
of cotton wool should be placed in the neck of the bottle, and it should
be kept in a cold place until required. Professor Soxhlet does not advise
the addition of lime water. The proteids are not of the same composition
as in human milk (the calf being a ruminating animal)--and it is a common
plan to add water or barley water to milk until it is so watered down that
it cannot curdle into tough curds. An infant has thus either to distend
its stomach with a large quantity of watery nourishment, or else to get
insufficient food. Sometimes it is necessary to peptonise the milk a
little. At the Leipzig infants hospital, and also the Hygienic Institute,
they give to infants, up to 9 months old, Prof. Soxhlet's mixture, except
that an equal volume of water is added to the milk. Milk, cheese, and
especially hen's eggs contain a very large proportion of proteid. When
added to food poor in proteid they improve its nutritive quality. It has
often been said, and with truth, that some vegetarians by the profuse use
of animal products, consume as much, or even more proteid of animal origin
than the average person who includes flesh food in his dietary. An excess
of proteid from these sources is less injurious as eggs contain no purins,
and milk but a very small quantity. In support of the use of animal
products, it may be said that we have become so fond of animal foods and
stimulating drinks, that the use of milk, butter, cheese and eggs renders
the transition to a dietary derived from the vegetable kingdom much
easier. By means of these, cooked dishes can be produced which approach
and sometimes can scarcely be distinguished from those of cooked flesh.

In the present state of society, when really good vegetarian fare is
difficult to procure away from home, eggs, cheese, and milk are a great
convenience.

Digestion.--The digestive juices contain certain unorganised ferments,
which produce chemical changes in the food. If the food is solid, it has
to be liquefied. Even if already liquid it has generally to undergo a
chemical change before being fitted for absorption into the body. The
alimentary canal is a tubular passage which is first expanded into the
mouth, and later into the stomach. As the food passes down, it is acted
upon by several digestive juices, and in the small intestine the nutritive
matter is absorbed, whilst the residue passes away.

The saliva is the first digestive juice. It is alkaline and contains a
ferment called ptyalin. This acts energetically on the cooked and
gelatinous starch, and slowly on the raw starch. Starch is quite insoluble
in water, but the first product of salivary digestion is a less complex
substance called soluble-starch. When time is allowed for the action to be
completed, the starch is converted into one of the sugars called maltose.
In infants this property of acting on starch does not appear in effective
degree until the sixth or seventh month, and starch should not be given
before that time. Only a small quantity should be provided before the
twelfth month, when it may be gradually increased. Dr. Sims Wallace has
suggested that the eruption of the lower incisors from the seventh to the
eighth month, was for the purpose of enabling the infant--in the
pre-cooking stage of man's existence--to pierce the outer covering of
fruits so as to permit his extracting the soluble contents by suction; and
accordingly when these teeth are cut we may allow the child to bite at
such vegetable substances as apples, oranges, and sugar cane. Dr. Harry
Campbell says that starch should be given to the young, "not as is the
custom, as liquid or pap, but in a form compelling vigorous mastication,
for it is certain that early man, from the time he emerged from the ape
till he discovered how to cook his vegetable food, obtained practically
all his starch in such a form. If it is given as liquid or pap it will
pass down as starch into the stomach, to setup disturbance in that organ;
while if it is administered in a form which obliges the child to chew it
properly, not only will the jaws, the teeth, and the gums obtain the
exercise which they crave, and without which they cannot develop normally,
but the starch will be thoroughly insalivated that much of it will be
converted within the mouth into maltose. Hard well baked crusts constitute
a convenient form in which to administer starch to children. A piece of
crust may be put in the oven and rebaked, and spread with butter. Later,
we may give hard plain biscuits." Dr. Campbell continues, that he does not
say that starch in the pappy form, or as porridge, should find no place
whatever in man's dietary at the present day, but we should arrange that a
large proportion of our food is in a form inviting mastication.

The teeth perform the very important function of breaking down our food
and enabling it to be intimately incorporated with the saliva and
afterwards with the digestive juices. The Anglo-Saxon race shows a greater
tendency to degeneracy in the teeth than do other races; the teeth of the
present generation are less perfect than those of previous generations. A
dentist writes (_Lancet_, 1903-2, p. 1054) "I have had the opportunity of
examining the teeth of many natives in their more or less uncivilised
state, from the Red Indians of North America, the negroes of Africa, to
the more civilised Chinese, Japanese, and Indians of the East, and I have
usually found them possessed of sound teeth, but so soon as they come
under the influence of civilised life in Washington, Montreal, London,
Paris and other cities, their teeth begin to degenerate, though their
general health may remain good." In a long article on mastication in the
_Lancet_ (1903-2, p. 84) from which we have already quoted, Dr. Harry
Campbell gives as the effect of thorough and efficient mastication, that
it increases the amount of alkaline saliva passing into the stomach, and
prolongs the period of starch digestion within that organ. That it
influences the stomach reflexly by promoting the flow of gastric juice.
That the frequent use of the jaws and the tongue, during the period of
growth, cause the jaws to expand. If the jaws are not adequately exercised
during this period, owing to the use of soft food, they do not reach their
normal size, the teeth are overcrowded, do not develop fully, and are
prone to decay. The effect of vigorous mastication is to stimulate the
circulation in the tooth pulp, which promotes nutrition and maintains a
firm dental setting. Dr. Campbell writes: "I am perfectly at one with Dr.
Wallace, in believing that the removal of the fibrous portion of food is
the main cause of the prevalence of caries among moderns."

When the food reaches the stomach, gastric juice is secreted. This juice
contains a ferment called pepsin and hydrochloric acid. Pepsin is only
active in an acid media. Starch digestion proceeds in the stomach to such
a time--stated as from 15 to 30 minutes--when the acid gastric juice has
been poured out in sufficient quantity to neutralise the alkalinity of
the saliva. The gastric juice acts upon the proteids only. After a time
the liquefied contents of the stomach are passed into the first portion
of the small intestine, called the duodenum. Here it meets with the
pancreatic juice, which like the gastric juice attacks proteids, but even
more energetically, and only in an alkaline media. The proteolitic ferment
is called trypsin. The pancreatic, the most important of the digestive
fluids, contains other ferments; one called amylopsin, takes up the
digestion of any remaining or imperfectly converted starch left from the
salivary digestion. Amylopsin is much more powerful and rapid than the
ptyalin of the saliva, especially on uncooked starch. Its absence from the
pancreatic juice of infants is an indication that starch should not be
given them. Another ferment, stearopsin, emulsifies fats. The bile is
alkaline and assists the pancreatic juice in neutralising the acid mixture
that leaves the stomach; it also assists the absorption of fats. The
digestion of proteids is not completed in the stomach. There are some who
look upon the stomach as chiefly of use as a receptacle for the large mass
of food, which is too quickly eaten to be passed at once into the
intestines; the food being gradually expelled from the stomach, in such
quantities as the duodenal digestion can adequately treat. A frequently
used table, showing the time required for the digestion of various foods
in the stomach, is of little practical value. There is ample provision for
the digestion of food, there is a duplication of ferments for the proteids
and starch. In health, the ferments are not only very active, but are
secreted in ample quantities. The digestive or unorganised ferments must
not be confused with the organised ferments such as yeast. The latter are
living vegetable cells, capable of indefinite multiplication. The former
are soluble bodies, and though capable of transforming or digesting some
thousands of times their mass of food, their power in this direction is
restricted within definite limits. Another and preferable name for them is
enzymes.

The action of saliva on starch is powerfully retarded by tea, this is due
to the tannin. Coffee and cocoa are without effect. Tea infused for two
minutes only, was not found to have sensibly less restraining effect than
when infused for thirty minutes. On peptic digestion both tea and coffee
had a powerful retarding effect. When of equal strength cocoa was nearly
as bad, but as it is usually taken much weaker, its inhibitory effect is
of little consequence.

Bacteria are minute vegetable organisms, which exist in the dust of the
air, in water and almost everywhere on or near the surface of the earth.
They are consequently taken in with our food. They exist in the mouth;
those in carious teeth are often sufficient to injuriously affect
digestion and health. The healthy gastric juice is to a great degree
antiseptic, but few bacteria being able to endure its acidity. When the
residue of the food reaches the large intestine, bacteria are found in
very great numbers. The warmth of the body is highly favourable to their
growth. They cause the food and intestinal _debris_ to assume its fæcal
character. Should the mass be retained, the bacterial poisons accumutate
and being absorbed into the body produce headaches, exhaustion,
neurasthenia and other complaints. Proteid matter, the products of its
decomposition and nitrogenous matter generally, are especially the food of
bacteria; this is shown in the offensiveness of the fæces of the
carnivora, notwithstanding their short intestines, compared with that of
the herbivora. Also in the difference of the fæces of the dog when fed on
flesh and on a nearly vegetable diet. On a rich proteid diet, especially
if it consists largely of flesh, the bacterial products in the intestines
are greater than on a vegetable diet. On the latter such a disease as
appendicitis is rare. Professor Elie Metchnikoff, of the Pasteur
Institute, thinks that man's voluminous and highly developed large
intestine fulfils no useful purpose, and on account of its breeding a very
copious and varied bacterial flora, could with advantage be dispensed
with. He also has said that man, who could support himself on food easily
digestible, has a small intestine which is disproportionately fully
developed. Instead of having between 18 and 21 feet of small intestine,
man might do with one-third of that length. According to him, there is a
disharmony of our food and our digestive system. Referring to such views,
and the desire of some surgeons to remove the vermiform appendix and
portions of the intestines upon too little provocation, Sir W. Macewin,
M.D., F.R.S. (_B. Medical Jrn._, 1904, 2 p. 874) says:--"Is this human
body of ours so badly constructed that it contains so many useless parts
and requires so much tinkering? Possibly I may be out of fashion with the
times, as I cannot find such imperfections in the normal human body as are
alleged. On the contrary, the more one looks into the human body and sees
it work, the better one understands it and the more one is struck with the
wondrous utility, beauty, and harmony of all its parts." Our food we can
change, but not our organs-except by a dangerous surgical operations. Our
teeth with our complex and very long intestines are adapted for fibrous,
bulky and solid food. On such food mankind has lived for an immense period
of time. It is true that there are several theoretical advantages in
cooked vegetable foods; but unfortunately there is a want of conformity
with our digestive organs. If a flesh diet is taken, the incongruity is
greater. Concentrated food causes constipation. An active man, leading an
out-of-door life, can take unsuitable food with little or no apparent
inconvenience, the movements of his body favouring intestinal action;
whilst the same food to a sedentary person will prove distinctly
injurious.

Some persons have such a vigorous digestion that they can consume almost
any food, even that which is obviously unsuitable; not only bad in kind
but excessive in quantity. Other persons have to be very careful. Many
have boasted that they can take of what they call the good things of life
to their full, without bad effect. We know of such men who have been much
esteemed for their joviality and good nature, but who have broken down in
what should have been a hearty and useful middle life. There are others
who were poorly equipped for the battle of life, with indifferent
constitutions, never having had the buoyancy and overflowing of animal
spirits; but who, by conserving such strength as they had, have outlived
all their more healthy but less careful comrades. The errors of the
parents are often most evident in the children or grandchildren. There
are many persons who cannot eat of some particular food, although it may
be quite wholesome to others. Sometimes it is a psychological rather than
a physiological disability, which may he overcome by an effort of the
will. At other times it seems to have no connection with the imagination,
although it is not always possible to give a sound reason for it. In the
main, of course, there are principles of dietetics applicable to all
alike, but in regard to details, everyone should make rules for himself,
according to his experience. When there appears no real reason for an
idiosyncrasy, a little humouring of our taste and digestion will often
overcome it, to our advantage. It is generally those of delicate
constitution who are most sensitive. Some cannot eat oatmeal except in
small quantity. Olive and other vegetable oils, even when of good quality
cannot be taken by many people, whilst others find them quite as
wholesome, or even better than butter. Vegetarians can generally detect
lard in pastry both by its taste and its after effects, although those
accustomed to this fat do not object to it. It is also surprising how some
individual's tastes and habits will vary at different periods of their
lives.

One form of dyspepsia is due to undigested starch remaining in the stomach
and causing an excessive secretion of hydrochloric acid. As long as
proteid food is present, the pepsin and acid expend themselves on it, and
are removed together. The undigested starch continues to stimulate gastric
secretion, and the acid residuum causes pain, heartburn and flatulence. If
there be also any butyric acid, or some other fatty acid, derived from
milk, butter, cheese, &c., there will be acid eructations. For this form
of indigestion there are several methods of treatment. First; the very
thorough cooking of all starchy food, and it is an advantage to take a
little good extract of malt, either at the time of eating or directly
afterwards. The diastase of the malt has the same action on starch as the
ptyalin in the saliva. It is better, scientifically, to have the
farinaceous food at about 130° F. (as hot as the mouth can bear will do),
and then to add malt extract. On keeping the mixture warm, from a few
minutes to half an hour or more, the starch is digested and rendered
soluble. Such food is not very pleasant to take. The food known as Grape
Nuts has been treated in a similar manner. The use of malt extract,
however, seems a clumsy substitute for salivary digestion. Second; the
eating of starch in the form of hard and dry biscuits, crusts and other
hard food, which demand thorough mastication and insalivation, and the
keeping in the mouth for a long while, during which the saliva has time to
act. This is the best plan. Third; the taking of sodium bicarbonate
towards the end of the period of digestion, in order to neutralise the
acid in the stomach. This gives relief, but does not cure, as the dose has
to be repeated after each meal; in course of time the quantity of soda has
sometimes to be increased to an alarming extent. Fourth; the abstention
from starchy foods and the substitution of an exclusive flesh dietary. In
the "Salisbury" treatment, raw minced beef is given. This method often
gives immediate relief, but its ultimate effect on the kidneys and other
organs is very bad.

No hard and fast rule can be laid down as to the number of meals into
which the daily amount of food required should be divided. The stomach
appears to work to the best advantage when it is full, or nearly so, and
the appetite is appeased. Three approximately equal meals seems to be a
convenient division. Dr. Dewey and his followers advise only two meals a
day, and it seems incontestable that many persons find the plan
advantageous. These are generally adults with weak digestions, or elderly
persons who, on account of their age and the sluggish action of their
assimilative functions, require comparatively little food. Children, on
account of their vigorous vitality, rapid growth and hearty appetites,
ought not to be restricted to this number. Persons who have got into the
pernicious habit of greatly over-eating, and whose stomachs have become
distended and unusually large, sometimes find it easier to restrict their
daily food to a healthy quantity by taking only two meals. The general
objections against two meals are that either two little food is taken, or
the ingestion of such a large quantity is bad for the stomach and causes
it to press on the adjacent viscera. The large quantity of blood and nerve
force drawn to the over-distended stomach, depletes the brain and nervous
system, causing drowsiness and incapacity for mental and physical work.
The carnivora, whose opportunity for obtaining food--unlike the
herbivora--is irregular and often at long intervals, gorge themselves upon
opportunity and are in the habit of sleeping after a meal. The frugivora
and herbivora, however, are alert and ready to fly from their enemies
should such appear. The conveying of so much nourishment to the liver and
blood stream at one time, is probably a greater tax on them. A light lunch
between the usual full meals has nothing to recommend it. The stomach is
burdened to little purpose, often before it has finished with one meal
another is imposed upon it, no time being left for recuperation.

Dietaries.--The best proportions of proteids, carbo-hydrates and fats
required for the nourishment of the body has not yet been conclusively
decided. The common plan is to average the dietary of large bodies of
persons, particualrly of soldiers and prisoners. These dietaries have been
adjusted empirically (the earlier ones at least), and are generally
considered as satisfactory. They are chiefly of English and German origin.
Another method is to laboriously analyse the injesta or food consumed and
compare it with the dejecta or excretions, until a quantity and kind of
food is found which is just sufficient to keep the body in equilibrium.
This latter plan is the best, but to be quite satisfactory must be tried
on a large number of suitable persons under varying conditions, both of
quantity and kind of food. Nearly all the experiments have been made on
persons accustomed to a stimulating dietary: their usual food has included
a considerable quantity of flesh and alcoholic drinks. Sufficient
attention has not been paid to the dietaries of the more abstemious races
who partake of little if any flesh food. The standard daily dietary for a
man of average weight, doing a moderate amount of work, is variously
stated by the best authorities as proteids from 100 to 130 grammes, fat 35
to 125 grammes, and carbo-hydrates 450 to 550 grammes. There is a
surprising difference of opinion on the amount of fat, but those who give
least fat give the largest quantity of carbo-hydrate and _vice-versa_. Dr.
R. Hutchison in "Food and Dietetics," sums up the quantities given by the
highest authorities as follows:---

Proteid 125 g. ( 4.4 oz.) x 4.1 = 512 cal. = 20 g. N, 62 C
Carbo-hydrate 500 g. (17.6 oz.) 4.1 2050 200
Fat 50 g. ( 1.8 oz.) 9.3 465 38
----------------- ---- -------- -----
675 g.(23.8 ) 3027 Total 20 g. N, 300 C

The nutrient ratio is 1 : 4.9. For scientific purposes, metrical weights
and measures are used, instead of the inconvenient English grains, ounces,
pounds, &c. (1 gramme = 15.43 grains; 1 ounce avoirdupois = 437.5 grains =
28.35 grammes). A calorie is a measure of the power of a food in
generating heat and muscular energy (these two being convertible).

The calories used in food tables are kilo-calories, representing the
amount of heat which would raise a kilogramme (1000 grammes) of water 1°
Centigrade. This is the same as raising 1 pound weight 4° Fahrenheit.
According to the table given, 125 grammes of dry proteid are required per
day; this contains 20 grammes of nitrogen and 62 of carbon. When
thoroughly consumed or utilised in the body, the heat or its equivalent in
muscular work equals 512 kilo-calories. Proteids have, of course, an
additional value as tissue formers. The factors used here, of 4.1 and 9.3,
are those commonly employed; but the latest and most reliable research,
taking account only of that part of the food which is actually available
in the body, gives for proteid and carbo-hydrate 4 calories, and for fat
8.9 calories.

Fat has a higher food value than the carbo-hydrates, as 4.1 : 9.3 = 2.27
or 4.0 : 89 = 2.225, according to whether the old or new factors are used.
In the table of analyses 2.225 was used. The standard dietary for a woman,
or of a boy 14 to 16 years of age, is given as equivalent to eight-tenths
that of a man; a child of 10 to 13 six-tenths; of 2 to 5 four-tenths. A
man doing hard work requires one-tenth more. The following table gives
three standard dietaries, and a few actual ones, in grammes per day. The
food of persons in easy circumstances, and of working men in the receipt
of good wages, approximate to the standard dietaries, except that the fat
is higher and the carbo-hydrates proportionately less. This is due to an
abundance of animal food. It was thought unnecessary to give them in
detail:--

Pr't. Fat. C'rb. Cal. N.R.
Hutchison: Man, moderate muscular work 125 50 500 3027 4.9
Atwater: " " " " 125 ... ... 3400 6.2
Voit: " " " " 118 56 500 2965 5.5
Atwater: Woman, light to moderate muscular work,
or Man without muscular exercise 90 ... ... 2450 6.1
Football teams, Connecticut and California, U.S. 226 354 634 6590 6.6
Russian peasants 129 33 589 3165 5.4
Negro families--Alabama and Virginia 86 145 440 3395 9.3
Labourers-Lombardy (diet, mostly vegetable) 82 40 362 2192 5.5
Japanese, on vegetable diet (_a_) 71 12 396 2026 6.0
Trappist monk, in Cloisters-vegetable diet 68 11 469 2304 7.3
Java village--Columbia Exposition, 1893 66 19 254 1450 4.7
Sewing girl-London (3/9 per week) 53 33 316 1820 7.3
German vegetarians 54 22 573 2775 11.6
German labourers' family (poor circumstances) 52 32 287 1640 7.2
Dr. T.R.A.--wheatmeal bread and water only (_b_) 82 8.5 470 2342 6.0
Man--3 years' exclusively vegetable diet (_c_) 54 22 557 2710 11.2
Thomas Wood, the miller of Billericay (_d_) 55 5.7 313 1560 6.0

Dr. Alexander Haig considers that 88 grammes of proteid is required by a
man leading a decidedly active life.

NOTES.--(_a_) The Japanese are of small stature and weight.

(_b_) One of a series of experiments by A.W. Blyth, 1888. 1-1/2 lbs. of
wheatmeal per day was required for equilibrium; sedentary occupation, with
a daily walk of six miles.

(_c_) See "A Text Book of Physiology," by M. Foster, 5th edition, part
ii., p. 839; the diet was bread, fruit and oil. The man was in apparently
good health and stationary weight; only 59 per cent. of the proteids were
digested, leaving the small quantity of 32 grammes available for real use.
In commenting upon this, Professor Foster writes:--"We cannot
authoritatively say that such a reduction is necessarily an evil; for our
knowledge will not at present permit us to make an authoritative exact
statement as to the extent to which the proteid may be reduced without
disadvantage to the body, when accompanied by adequate provision of the
other elements of food; and this statement holds good whether the body be
undertaking a small or large amount of labour."

(_d_) The Miller of Billericay's case is quoted by Dr. Carpenter, and also
by Dr. Pavy. It was reported to the College of Physicians in 1767 by Sir
George Baker. A remarkable degree of vigour is said to have been sustained
for upwards of eighteen years on no other nutriment than 16 oz. of flour,
made into a pudding with water, no other liquid of any kind being taken.

A striking instance of abstemiousness is that of Cornaro, a Venetian
nobleman, who died in the year 1566 at the age of 98. Up to the age of 40
he spent a life of indulgence, eating and drinking to excess. At this
time, having been endowed with a feeble constitution, he was suffering
from dyspepsia, gout, and an almost continual slow fever, with an
intolerable thirst continually hanging upon him. The skill of the best
physicians of Italy was unavailing. At length he completely changed his
habits of diet, and made a complete recovery. At the age of 83 he wrote a
treatise on a "Sure and certain method of attaining a long and healthful
life." He says, what with bread, meat, the yolk of an egg and soup, I ate
as much as weighed 12 ozs., neither more nor less. I drank 14 oz. of wine.
When 78 he was persuaded to increase his food by the addition of 2 oz. per
day, and this nearly proved fatal. He writes that, instead of old age
being one of weakness, infirmity and misery, I find myself to be in the
most pleasant and delightful stage of life. At 83 I am always merry,
maintaining a happy peace in my own mind. A sober life has preserved me in
that sprightliness of thought and gaiety of humour. My teeth are all as
sound as in my youth. He was able to take moderate exercise in riding and
walking at that age. He was very passionate and hasty in his youth. He
wrote other treatises up to the age of 95.

Kumagara, Lapicque and Breis-acher, have, as the result of their
experiments, reduced the quantity of proteid required per 24 hours to 45
grammes. T. Hirschfeld states, as the conclusion of his research, that it
is possible for a healthy man (in one case for 15 days and in another for
10 days) to maintain nitrogenous balance on from 30 to 40 grammes of
proteid per day. Labbé and Morchoisne (Comptes Rendus, 30th May, 1904, p.
1365) made a dieting experiment during 38 days, upon one of themselves.
The proteid was derived exclusively from vegetable food. The food
consisted of bread, lentils, haricots, potatoes, carrots, chestnuts,
endives, apples, oranges, preserves, sugar, starch, butter, chocolate and
wine. At the commencement, the day's food contained 14.1 grammes of
nitrogen = 89.3 proteid, which was gradually diminished. On the 7th day
11.6 g. N. = 73.5 g. proteid was reached; during this time less N. was
eliminated, indicating that the proteid food was in excess of that
required for the wear and tear of the body. As the quantity of nitrogenous
food was diminished almost daily, the N. eliminated was found to diminish
also. This latter was in slight excess of that absorbed; but when a day or
two's time was allowed, without further reduction in the food, the body
tended to adjust itself to the dimished supply, and there was an
approximation of income and expenditure. The smallest quantity of food was
reached on the 32nd day with 1.06 N. = 6.7 proteid, which was obviously
too little, as 2.19 N. = 13.9 proteid was eliminated. On the 21st day 4.12
N. = 26 proteid was injested, and 4.05 N. was eliminated. The inference
drawn from the research is that about 26 grammes of proteid per day was
sufficient. The weight of the body remained practically constant
throughout, and the subject did not suffer inconvenience. Of course the
full amount of calories was kept up; as each succeeding quantity of the
proteid was left off, it was replaced by a proper quantity of
non-nitrogenous food. These experiments were carried out in the usual
approved scientific manner. It may, however, be urged against any
generalised and positive conclusions as to the minimum quantity of proteid
required for the body, being drawn from such experiments, that the period
covered by them was much too short. A prolonged trial might have revealed
some obscure physiological derangement. We are quite justified in
concluding that the usual, so-called "standard dietaries" contain an
unnecessarily large proportion of proteid. In some practical dietaries, 50
grammes and under have seemed enough; but for the ordinary adult man, who
has been accustomed to an abundance of proteid, and whose ancestors have
also, it is probably advisable not to take less than 70 or 80 grammes per
day (2-1/2 to 3 ounces). If it is desired to try less, the diminution
should be very gradual, and a watch should be kept for any lessening of
strength.

Some comments may now be made upon the table of dietaries. That of the
London sewing girl contained 53 grammes of proteid, which should have been
ample, according to some of the authorities we have given; yet she was
badly nourished. The food was doubtless of bad quality, and it appears
deficient in carbo-hydrates; this latter is shown by the low number of
calories. The long hours and unhealthy conditions of work, and not a
deficiency of food constituents, is probably the cause of the bad health
of such persons. There is no reason to think the proteid insufficient,
although some persons have said as much. We have no particulars of the
German vegetarians, but the calories appear satisfactory. In the poor
German labourer's family the calories are too low. In Dr. T.R. Allinson's
experiment on a wheatmeal dietary, it will not do to assume that less than
82 grammes of proteid would have been insufficient. It is probable that a
smaller quantity of proteid would have been enough if the fat and
carbohydrates had been increased. The calories are below the usual
standard. In the succeeding example the calories are considerably higher,
being not far from the usual standard, yet 54 grammes of proteid sufficed.
It is a common error to place an undue value on the proteids to the extent
of overlooking the other constituents. Dr. Alexander Haig in "Diet and
Food," p. 8, cites the case of a boy aged 10, fed on 2-1/4 pints of milk
per day. The boy lost weight, and Dr. Haig is of opinion that the quantity
of milk was very deficient in proteid; more than twice as much being
required. 2-1/4 pints of milk contain about 45 grammes of proteid,
whereas, according to the usual figures (125 x 6/10) a boy of this age
requires 75 g. This quantity of 45 g. is however, higher, allowing for the
boy's age, than that in several of the dietaries we have given in our
table. A little consideration will show that Dr. Haig has overlooked the
serious deficiency of the milk in the other constituents, which accounts
for the boy's loss of weight. The quantity of milk contains only about 160
g. of total solid matter, whilst 400 g. is the necessary quantity. Milk is
too rich in proteid matter to form, with advantage, the sole food of a
human being. Human milk contains much less in proportion to the other
constituents.

The old doctrine enunciated by Justus von Liebig was that proteid matter
is the principal source of muscular energy or strength. He afterwards
discovered and acknowledged his error, and the subject has since been
thoroughly investigated. The makers of meat extracts and other foods,
either from their own ignorance of modern research or their wish to take
advantage of the lack of knowledge and prejudice of the public, call
proteid matter alone nourishment. The carbo-hydrates and fats are equally
entitled to be called nourishment.

Our reason for devoting so much space to the consideration of the quantity
of proteid matter required, is that in the opinion of many eminent writers
it is the crux of vegetarianism. They have stated that it is impossible to
obtain sufficient from vegetable foods alone, without consuming an
excessive quantity of carbo-hydrates. We will summarise the argument as
given in Kirke's Physiology, as edited by Morrant Baker, a standard work,
and which is repeated in Furneaux's "Animal Physiology," a book which is
much used in elementary science schools: "The daily waste from the system
amounts to, carbon 4,500 grains (or 300 grammes), and nitrogen, 300 grains
(or 20 grammes). Now let us suppose a person to feed on bread only. In
order to obtain the necessary quantity of nitrogen to repair this waste
he would have to eat nearly 4-1/4 lbs. daily.... He would be compelled to
take about double the quantity of carbon required in order to obtain the
necessary weight of nitrogen.... Next, let us suppose that he feeds on
lean meat only. Then, in order to obtain the necessary quantity of carbon,
he must eat no less than 6-1/2 lbs. daily.... In this case we notice a
similar waste of nitrogen, the removal of which would give an undue amount
of work to the organs concerned.... But it is possible to take such a
mixed diet of bread and meat as will supply all the requirements of the
system, and at the same time yield but little waste material." (These
extracts are from Furneaux, the next is from Kirke. The figures and
argument is the same in each, but we have chosen those sentences for
quotation which are the briefest and most suitable; certain calculations
being omitted.) "A combination of bread and meat would supply much more
economically what was necessary ... so that 3/4 lbs. of meat, and less
than 2 lbs. of bread would supply all the needful carbon and nitrogen with
but little waste. From these facts it will be plain that a mixed diet is
the best and most economical food for man; and the result of experience
entirely coincides with what might have been anticipated on theoretical
grounds only." Professor Huxley, in his "Elementary Physiology" uses
almost the same figures and argument.

The adoption of this high proteid or nitrogen figure would lead to some
ridiculous conclusions. One writer states that 18 eggs would contain
sufficient flesh forming substance for a day's ration, but a very much
larger quantity would be required to supply enough carbon. On the other
hand, Professor Church says that, no less than 70 lbs. of pears would have
to be eaten per day, to supply the necessary quantity of nitrogen;
although the carbon would be in excess. The curious may calculate the
proper quantity of each that would make a theoretically perfect dietary.
People are apt to assume that what they themselves eat, or what their
class, race, or nation eat, is the proper and necessary diet; at least as
far as the elementary constituents and quantities are concerned. The error
is in attempting to make a vegetarian diet, however contrary to common
sense and the experience of the greater part of the earth's inhabitants,
agree in composition with the ordinary lavish flesh dietary of the
well-to-do European. It is significant that John Bull is caricatured with
a large abdomen and a coarse, ruddy, if not inflamed face, indicative of
his hearty dining on flesh, coarse food and alcoholic drinks. An unhealthy
short lived individual. Even if we accept a high proportion of proteid, it
is possible to combine purely vegetable foods so as to give the required
quantity of the various constituents, without a superfluity of the
carbo-hydrates. In "Food Grains of India," Professor A.H. Church shows by
elaborate analyses and dietary tables, how this can be accomplished by
various combinations of cereals, pulses, etc. He takes Forster and Voit's
standard of 282 grains of nitrogen and 5,060 grains of carbon, with a
suitable deduction for the smaller weight of the Indians. In his examples
of daily rations he gives from 5 to 9 ounces of various beans, balanced
by the addition of the proper quantity of rice--4 to 16 ounces, and a
little oil. Such a large quantity of pulse appears to us excessive, and
would cause discomfort to most persons. We much doubt whether those
Indians who are strict vegetarians could consume such quantities.

Some valuable investigations were made on the diet of a family of
fruitarians, at the Californian Agricultural Experimental Station, July,
1900, by Professor M.E. Jaffa (bulletin 107). The proportion of food, both
proteid and carbo-hydrate used was surprisingly small. The research is
particularly important, as the diet was not an experimental one, tried
during a short period only; but that to which the family were accustomed.
The family consisted of two women and three children; they had all been
fruitarians for five to seven years, and made no change in their dietary
during the experiment. They only had two meals a day, the food being eaten
uncooked. The quantities of all the foods and other particulars are
detailed in the bulletin. The first meal was at 10-30 a.m., and always
consisted of nuts followed by fruits. The other meal was about 5 p.m.,
when they usually ate no nuts, substituting olive oil and honey. The nuts
used were almonds, Brazil, pine, pignolias and walnuts; the fresh fruits
were apples, apricots, bananas, figs, grapes, oranges, peaches and pears.
Other foods were dates, raisins, pickled olives, olive oil and honey. One
person (_b_) ate a little celery and tomatoes, and another (_c_) a little
cereal food. In the following table are given the average daily quantities
of the food constituents in grammes:--Proteids, fat, carbo-hydrate, crude
fibre, value in calories and nutrient ratio. The crude fibre is classed as
a carbo-hydrate and included in the calorie value, and also in calculating
the nutrient ratio.

Pro. Fat. C'r'b. Fibre. Cal. N. R.
Woman, age 33, weight 90 lbs. (_a_) 33 59 110 40 1300 8.6
Woman " 30 " 104 " (_b_) 25 57 72 27 1040 9.1
Girl " 13 " 75-1/2 " (_c_) 26 52 111 46 1235 10.5
Boy " 9 " 43 " (_d_) 27 56 102 50 1255 10.3
Girl " 6 " 30-1/2 " (_e_) 24 58 97 37 1190 11.1
Girl " 7 " 34 " (_ee_) 40 72 126 8 1385 7.4

The last research extended over ten days; the period during which each of
the other subjects was under observation was from 20 to 28 days.

(_a_) The tentative standard for a woman at light work calls for 90
grammes of proteids and 2,500 calories; it is thus seen that the quantity
of food eaten was far below that usually stated as being necessary. The
subject, however, was a very small woman, 5 feet in height, taking almost
no physical exercise. She believed, as do fruitarians generally, that
people need far less raw than cooked food. (_b_) The food eaten was even
less in quantity than in the previous dietary. One reason for this was the
fact that the subject was, for part of the time at least, under great
mental strain, and did not have her usual appetite. Even this small amount
of food, judging by her appearance and manner, seemed sufficient for her
needs, enabling her to do her customary housework and take care of her two
nieces and nephew, the subjects of the other experiments. (_c_) This girl
was given cereals and vegetables when she craved them, but her aunt says
she never looks nor feels so well when she has much starchy food, and
returns to her next meal of uncooked food with an increased appreciation
of its superiority. The commonly accepted dietary standard for a child 13
years old and of average activity, is not far from 90 grammes of proteids
and 2,450 calories, yet the girl had all the appearance of being well fed
and in excellent health and spirits. (_d_) During the 22 days of
experiment, there was an increase in weight of 2 pounds, due to the fact
that the family had been in straitened circumstances, and the food
provided was more abundant during the study. (_e_) The subject had been
very delicate as a baby. She was very small for her age, being 10 pounds
under the average weight, and 7 inches less than the average height. It is
interesting to note that her only gain in weight during the past year was
made during this dietary and the one immediately following. This was due
to her being urged to eat all she wanted, of what she most preferred, as
the food was provided by those making the study. The proteid is less than
the tentative standard for a child of 1 to 2 years old, but the subject
appeared perfectly well and was exceedingly active. She impressed one as
being a healthy child, but looked younger than her age. (_ee_) The subject
is the same as in the previous experiment (_e_), but after an interval of
8 months, her seventh birthday occurred during the time.

Professor Jaffa, who made the investigation, says:--"It would appear that
all the subjects were decidedly under-nourished, even making allowance for
their light weight. But when we consider that the two adults have lived
upon this diet for seven years, and think they are in better health and
capable of more work than they ever were before, we hesitate to pronounce
judgment. The three children had the appearance of health and strength.
They ran and jumped and played all day like ordinary healthy children, and
were said to be unusually free from colds and other complaints common to
childhood. The youngest child, and the only one who has lived as a
fruitarian almost from infancy was certainly undeveloped. She looked fully
two years younger than she was. Still, there are so many children who are
below the average in development, whose dietaries conform to the ordinary
standards, that it would be unfair to draw any conclusions until many more
such investigations are made."

The research shows that not only is there need of a revision of the
"standard" quantity of proteids, but also of the carbo-hydrates and fats.
It is generally said by those who have no practical experience amongst
vegetarians, that the latter require a much larger quantity of food than
do those who include flesh. The truth is that vegetarians eat less, often
much less. It is a common experience that vegetable food has a more
staying power, and a much longer period can be allowed between meals,
without the inconvenience that a flesh-eater, especially a flesh and
alcohol consumer, suffers. This is due, in part at least, to its less
stimulating character and its slower digestion. This fact has been shown
by the success of vegetarians in feats of strength and endurance, and
especially in the comparatively fresh condition in which they have
finished long walking, cycling, tennis, and other matches. Those who
attempt to prolong their powers of endurance by flesh extracts and
stimulating foods and drinks, usually finish in a very exhausted
condition. The superior endurance and recovery from wounds, when compared
with our English soldiers, of simple feeding men, such as the Zulus, Turks
and Japanese, has often been remarked. It is often said that vegetable
food, as it contains more fibre and is slower of digestion, taxes the
bodily organs more. If we attempted to eat uncooked, the more fibrous
vegetables, the grains, and unripe fruit, it would be quite true, but it
is not so of the ordinary food of vegetarians. A slowness of digestion
does not necessarily imply a greater strain on the system. As vegetables,
in particular, are for the longest period of time in the intestines, and
undergo the greater part of their digestion there, a gentle and slow
process of digestion in that organ may be more thorough. It may also
entail less expenditure of nervous energy than if the food had been of
such a stimulating character, as to be hurried along the digestive tract.
Digestion is for the most part a chemical process. If the food is of right
kind and quantity, thoroughly masticated, assisted if necessary by
cookery, and the digestive ferments are normal, digestion proceeds without
any sensible expenditure or energy or consciousness of its accomplishment.
There is nothing improbable in a flesh-eater requiring more food than a
simple living vegetarian. His food contains more proteid, and
excrementitious matter or extractives; these stimulate the digestive
organs and overtax the excretory ones. Generally, he is fond of
condiments, salt, and elaborate cooking, often also of alcohol; if a man,
probably of tobacco. He lives, as it were, at high pressure.

There are on record certain experiments which appear to indicate the
necessity of a large proportion of proteid, especially when the diet has
been of vegetable origin. These experiments are inconclusive, because the
subject has been accustomed to an ordinary flesh diet, perhaps also to
alcoholic drinks. The change to a comparatively non-stimulating diet
cannot be made, and the digestive organs expected to adapt themselves in
a few days. Perhaps not even a month or a year would suffice, for some
people, and yet that same diet would suit others. In some experiments the
food has not been appetising, the subject has even taken it with
reluctance or even loathing; an excess of some food has been eaten which
no vegetarian or anybody else would think of using in a practical dietary.

Sometimes persons on changing from an ordinary flesh dietary, lose weight
and strength. Generally, it is found that they have done little more than
discontinue the flesh, without substituting suitable foods. Authorities
think it is from a deficiency of proteid, and recommend an addition of
such foods as pulse, wheatmeal, oatmeal, eggs, milk, cheese, and such as a
reference to the table of analyses, show a low nutrient ratio figure. This
may also be due to an insufficiency of food eaten, owing to the
comparatively insipid character of the food and want of appetite. In
making a change to a vegetarian diet, such foods had better be taken that
are rather rich in proteid, and that approximate somewhat in their flavour
and manner of cooking to that used previously. A further change to a
simpler diet can afterwards gradually be made, according to conviction,
tastes and bodily adaptability. It must not be expected that a change,
even an ultimately very advantageous one, will always meet with an
immediate and proper response from digestive and assimilative organs which
have been accustomed for many years, perhaps by inheritance for
generations, to another manner of living. There are several preparations
produced from centrifugalised milk--that is milk from which the butter fat
has been removed, which consist chiefly of proteid. These have a value in
increasing the proteid contents of foods which may be thought deficient.
The addition of these manufactured products appear unnecessary, as most
of our food contains an abundance of proteid, and we can easily limit the
quantity or avoid altogether those that are thought defective.

The later apologists for a flesh diet have had to admit that it is not a
physiological necessity; but they have attempted to justify its use by a
theory somewhat as follows. It is admitted, that any excess of proteid
over that necessary for its special province of producing tissue, is
utilised as a force-producer, in a similar manner to the carbo-hydrates.
When the molecule is split up, and the carbon utilised, the nitrogen
passes off in the form of urea by the kidneys. The theory propounded is
that at the moment the nitrogen portion is liberated, it in some manner
stimulates the living protoplasm of the nerve cells in its immediate
neighbourhood to a higher state of activity. These views are given by Dr.
Hutchison in his book on "Food," but there are no substantial grounds for
them. It is only prompted by a wish to excuse a cherished habit. Sir
William Roberts, M.D., in "Dietetics and Dyspepsia," p. 16 says that "high
feeding consists mainly in a liberal allowance of meat, and in the
systematic use of alcoholic beverages, and that low-feeding consists in a
diet which is mainly vegetarian and non-alcoholic," and he proceeds to say
that the high-fed classes and races display, on the whole, a richer
vitality and a greater brain-power than their low-fed brethren. That "it
is remarkable how often we hear of eminent men being troubled with gout,
and gout is usually produced either by personal or ancestral
high-feeding." We can only spare room for a few remarks on this subject.
Intellectual and business ability brings wealth, wealth frequently leads
to the pleasures of the table, but such habits are detrimental to
sustained effort and clearness of mind. The children and grandchildren of
such high livers are usually common-place, intellectually, and of
deteriorated physique. The aristocracy who are generally high livers,
notwithstanding their great advantages of education, travel and leisure,
are not as a rule famed for their intellectual gifts. In the recent war
the frugal living Japanese soldier has proved himself the most enduring
and bravest in history; whilst the Japanese officers are more resourceful
and tactful than the wealthier, high-fed Russian officers, with their
aristocratic lineage. What is called high-feeding, is of the greatest
benefit to the doctors and the proprietors of remedies for digestive and
nervous disorders.

Food Adjuncts and Drugs.--In addition to the nutrients and the small
quantity of indigestible fibre of which we have already written, food
generally contains small quantities of substances which are difficult to
classify, and whose action on the body is but imperfectly understood. Many
of these possess pungent or strong odours and flavours. To them, various
fruits, meats, etc., owe much of their characteristic differences of
taste. When pure the proteids and starches are devoid of taste. Such oils
and fats as are generally eaten have also but little flavour, providing
they are free from rancidity and of good quality. The sugars differ from
the other nutrients in possessing a more or less decided taste. The free
vegetable acids also strongly affect the sense of taste, but they are only
consumed in small quantities.

A drug may be defined as a substance which modifies the functions of the
body or of some organ without sensibly imparting nourishment. This action
may be one of stimulation or of depression. A drug is taken for its
medicinal action, a food adjunct for its modifying action on food. It is
impossible to give a quite satisfactory definition, or to draw sharp
distinctions. For example, tea, coffee, alcohol and tobacco are sometimes
placed in one group, and sometimes in another, according to opinion of
their action and the definition of the terms food adjuncts, drugs and
poisons. The difference of grouping often depends upon intensity rather
than of kind of action. If taken frequently and not in quantity sufficient
to have a markedly medicinal action, such things are generally called food
adjuncts or supplementary foods, although much may be said in favour of a
different view. The volatile oils of mustard, caraway, cloves, etc., are
used in medicine; also the alkaloids of coffee and cocoa. Even honey is
used as a mild laxative for infants; that is, as a drug. The difference
between a drug and a poison is one only of degree. Some of the most
esteemed drugs have to be administered in very small quantities, or they
cause death; e.g., strychnine and morphine.

Classifications are necessary for methodical study, and for assisting the
memory in grasping large numbers of things which can be grouped together.
Classifications, however, are artificial, not due to natural lines of
demarkation, but according to man's knowledge and convenience; hence a
group is apt to approach and finally merge into another group, although on
first consideration they appeared quite distinct. The disregard of this
often leads to confusion and useless discussions.

Plants, like animals, as the result of tissue change, have certain used-up
or waste matters to get out of the way. Animals have special excretory
organs for the purpose; waste matter remains in the flesh and blood of
dead animals. In plants are found a large number of powerful volatile
oils, alkaloids, bitter resins, etc. Many of these are, in all
probability, excretory products of no assimilative value to the plant.
Certain volatile oils may attract insects, and in obtaining nectar from
flowers insects assist fertilisation. Agreeable volatile oils and
flavouring substances in fruits attract birds and animals. The eating of
the fruits cause the seeds, which are uninjured by passing through the
digestive system, to be disseminated over wide areas to the advantage of
the plant species. On the other hand, nauseous and poisonous alkaloids,
oils, resins, etc., serve as a protection against the attacks of browsing
animals, birds, caterpillars, snails, etc. These nauseous substances are
most abundant in the bark, husk, skin and outer parts. It is commonly
supposed that the food on which each animal, including man, subsists, is
especially produced by Nature for the purpose. This is an error, for each
species of plant and animal lives for itself alone, and protects itself,
with more or less success, against destruction by its competitors and
enemies. Each species of animal selects from its surroundings such food as
is most suitable. Such food may not be theoretically perfect; that is, it
may not contain the maximum of nourishment free from innutritious matter;
but during the long period of evolution, each species of animal has become
possessed of organs suited to its environment. If to such animals be given
food containing less indigestible matter, or food which is more readily
digested by laboratory tests made independently of the living animal,
their digestive system will be thrown out of gear, become clogged up or
refuse to work properly, just as the furnace of a steam boiler, made to
burn coal, will act badly with wood or petroleum. Many scientific men have
overlooked this fact, and have endeavoured to produce food substances for
general consumption, in the most concentrated and soluble form, thinking
such food would be more easily assimilated.

The Volatile and Essential Oils are contained in minute quantity in a
very large number of animal and vegetable foods. They contribute in part
to the flavour of fruits. They are the cause of the pungency and aroma of
mustard, horse-radish, cloves, nutmegs, cinnamon, caraway seeds, mint,
sage and other spices. Onions contain a notable quantity. When extracted
the essential oils become powerful drugs. In moderate quantities they are
stomachic and carminative, in larger quantities irritant and emetic.
Condiments and spices not only add flavour to food, but stimulate the
secretion of gastric juice and peristaltic movement.

The Alkaloids most used are those of tea, coffee, kola-nut, cocoa, coca,
tobacco and opium. Although the two last are generally smoked, they must
be classed amongst the food adjuncts. It is of little consequence whether
their active principles enter the body by the mouth and saliva or the
lungs; their action on the blood and nervous system is the same.

The Extractives, as they are called, comprise a number of bodies of
varying nature. They especially exist in flesh and flesh extracts. Amongst
these are the purins. They will be treated at greater length hereafter.

Alcohol is to some extent a true food, but its stimulant and other
action quite overshadows any food value it may possess.

There are other bodies such as the resins and bitters. The active
principle of Indian hemp is a resin.

There is a great difference of opinion as to the extent to which
stimulants may advantageously be used. It is remarkable that amongst
nearly all nations, either alcohol in some form or one of the stronger
alkaloids is in common use. From this fact it is sometimes argued that
stimulants must supply a physiological need. The same method of reasoning
will apply with greater force to the use of condiments. Such conclusions
appear to us to be scarcely warranted. If the extensive or even universal
practice of a thing proves its necessity, then has there been
justification, either now or in the past, for war, lying, avarice and
other vices. It is strange that drugs differing so greatly in their
immediate and obvious effects as, for example, alcohol and opium, or
coffee and tobacco should be used. Should it he said that only some of the
much used stimulants are useful, there is an end to the argument based on
their universal use. There is no doubt that the use of stimulants in more
than very small quantities is distinctly injurious, and it is difficult to
see what physiological advantage there can be in their habitual use, to
what is vaguely called a moderate extent. Sometimes they are taken for a
supposed medical necessity, and where taste attracts, little evidence
satisfies. Those in the habit of taking them, if honest, must confess that
it is chiefly on account of the apparent enjoyment. The ill-nourished and
the depressed in body and mind crave most for stimulants. A food creates
energy in the body, including the nervous system, and this is the only
legitimate form of stimulation. A mere stimulant does not create but draws
on the reserve forces. What was latent energy--to become in the natural
course gradually available--under stimulation is rapidly set free; there
is consequently, subsequent depletion of energy. There may occasionally be
times when a particular organ needs a temporary stimulus to increased
action, notwithstanding it may suffer an after depression; but such cases
are so rare that they may be left out of our present argument, and
stimulants should only be used, like other powerful drugs, under medical
advice. In the last 25 years the use of alcohol by the medical profession
has steadily diminished, its poisonous properties having become more
evident.

There is a general similarity in the effects of stimulants on the
digestive and nervous systems. The most largely used stimulant is ethyl
alcohol, and as its action is best known, it may be useful to name the
principal effects. Alcohol in the form of wine and spirits, in small
quantities, first stimulates the digestive organs. Large quantities
inflame the stomach and stop digestion. (Beer, however, retards digestion,
altogether out of proportion to the alcohol it contains.) Alcohol
increases the action of the heart, increases the blood pressure, and
causes the vessels of the whole body to dilate, especially those of the
skin; hence there is a feeling of warmth. It the person previously felt
cold he now feels warm. The result of the increased circulation through
the various organs is that they work with greater vigour, hence the mental
faculties are brightened for a time, and the muscular strength seems
increased. The person usually feels the better for it, though this is not
always the case; some have a headache or feel very sleepy. It has been
repeatedly proved that these good results are but transitory. The heart,
although at first stimulated, is more exhausted after the action of the
alcohol has passed away than it was at first. This is true of all the
organs of the body which were stimulated. In consequence of the dilatation
of the blood vessels of the skin, an unusual quantity of heat is lost and
the body is cooled. After taking alcohol persons are less able to stand
cold. When overtaken by snowstorms or subjected to excessive or prolonged
cold, it has often happened that those who resorted to spirit drinking
have succumbed, whilst the others have survived. Insurance statistics
have conclusively shown that teetotallers are longer livers than the
so-called moderate drinkers. The terrible effects on both body and mind of
the excessive drinking of alcohol, or the use of other strong stimulants
or narcotics, are too obvious to need allusion to here; we are only
concerned with what is vaguely called their moderate use.

The stimulation produced by tea and coffee is in some respects like that
of alcohol. The heart is stimulated and the blood pressure rises. The
kidneys are strongly affected in those unaccustomed to the drug, but this
ceases after a week or more of use. Their chief effect is on the brain and
nervous system.

Many have boasted that they can take of what they call the good things of
life to their full, without any bad effect, and looking over a few years,
or even many years, it seems a fact. Some of us have known of such men,
who have been esteemed for their joviality and good nature, who have
suddenly broken down at what should have been a hearty middle life. On the
other hand there are men who were badly equipped for the battle of life,
with indifferent constitutions, who never had the buoyancy and overflow of
animal spirits, but who with care have long outlived all their formerly
more robust but careless companions.

Simple versus Highly-flavoured Foods.--It is very difficult to decide to
what extent condiments and flavourings should be used. These have
stimulating properties, although differing from the more complex
properties of alcohol and the alkaloids. The great differences in the
dietetic practices of nations does not appear to be in conformity with any
general rule. It varies with opportunity, climate and national
temperament; though doubtless the national temperament is often due in
part to the dietetic habits. Some races are content with the simplest
foods, large numbers subsist chiefly on rice, others on the richer
cereals, wheat, oatmeal, etc., and fruit. On the other hand there are
races who enjoy stronger flavoured food, including such things as garlic,
curry, pickles, pepper, strong cheese, meat extracts, rancid fats, dried
and smoked fish, high game or still more decomposed flesh, offal and
various disgusting things. The Greenlanders will eat with the keenest
appetite, the half-frozen, half-putrid head and fins of the seal, after
it has been preserved under the grass of summer. In Burmah and Sumatra a
mess is made by pounding together prawns, shrimps, or any cheap fish; this
is frequently allowed to become partially putrid. It is largely used as a
condiment for mixing with their rice. Numerous examples of this sort could
be given. There is scarcely anything that it is possible to eat, but has
been consumed with relish by some tribe or other. The strongest flavoured,
and to our minds most disgusting foods are eaten by the least intelligent
and most brutal races. It is hunger that compels the poor African bushman
to eat anything he can get, and the Hottentot not only the flesh, but the
entrails of cattle which die naturally, and this last he has come to think
exquisite when boiled in beast-blood. All this shows a wonderful range of
adaptability in the human body, but it would not be right to say that all
such food is equally wholesome. The most advanced and civilised races,
especially the more delicately organised of them are the most fastidious,
whilst it is the most brutal, that take the most rank and strongly
flavoured foods. Even amongst the civilised there are great differences.
The assimilative and nervous systems can be trained to tolerate injurious
influences to a remarkable degree. A striking example is seen in the
nausea commonly produced by the first pipe of tobacco, and the way the
body may in time be persuaded, not only to tolerate many times such a
quantity without manifesting any unpleasant feelings, but to receive
pleasure from the drug. Opium or laudanum may be taken in gradually
increasing quantities, until such a dose is taken as would at first have
produced death, yet now without causing any immediate or very apparent
harm. Nearly all drugs loose much of their first effect on continued use.
Not only is this so, but a sudden discontinuance of a drug may cause
distress, as the body, when free from the artificial stimulation to which
it has become habituated, falls into a sluggish or torpid condition. For
the enjoyment of food two things are equally necessary, a healthy and keen
appetite and suitable food; without the first no food, however good and
skilfully prepared, will give satisfaction. The sense of taste resides in
certain of the papilloe of the tongue, and to a much less degree in the
palate. Tastes may be classified into sweet, bitter, acid and saline.
Sweet tastes are best appreciated by the tip, acid by the side, and bitter
by the back of the tongue. Hot or pungent substances produce sensations of
general feeling, which obscure any strictly gustatory sensations which may
be present at the same time. To affect the taste the food must enter into
solution. Like the other senses, taste may be rendered more delicate by
cultivation. Flavours are really odours, and the word smell would be more
appropriate. For example, what we call the taste of an onion, the flavour
of fruit, etc. (independent of the sweetness or sourness of the fruit) is
due to the nose.

Much has been written on the necessity of making food tasty, so as to
stimulate the appetite and digestion. It is urged that unless this is done
food will not be eaten in sufficient quantity. Innumerable receipts (some
very elaborate) have been published for this purpose. All this is supposed
to increase the enjoyment of food. The Anglo-Saxon race--the race whose
dietary is the most elaborate--is especially subject to digestive
derangements, and without good digestion and the consequent healthy
appetite, no food will give full gustatory pleasure. The most wholesome
food, and that which can be eaten most frequently without weariness, is
mildly flavoured and simply prepared. Plain bread is an example; whereas
sweet bread, currant bread, etc., though agreeable in small quantity, or
as an occasional delicacy, soon palls on the appetite. Rice is the poorest
and mildest flavoured of the cereals, it is therefore often, perhaps
generally, made more tasty by the addition of fish, curry, etc. The bulk
of the Chinese live on rice, with the exception of only 3 or 4 ounces of
fish per day, and they are a fine, big and strong race. The Japanese
labourer lives on similar food. In India rice is the food most in use,
though many other cereals are eaten there. Other races live chiefly on
fruits. It appears that the digestive organs will perform their functions
perfectly with the mildest flavoured food. There is nothing surprising in
this. The strongest, most intelligent, and largest animals are those which
feed on grass, herbs and fruits. Even the African lion is no match for the
gorilla. The lion and tiger are capable of great strength, but they cannot
put it forth for long periods as can the herbivora. Our most useful
animal, the horse, can exert much more muscular energy, weight for weight,
than any of the carnivora. The cost of feeding one of the herbivora is
much less than that of one of the carnivora of the same weight. This is so
whether we take the cost of purchasing the food; or the expenditure of
time, labour and energy on the part of man or of natural forces in the
production of the food. Herbs, roots, corn and fruit are produced much
more abundantly and freely than the corresponding quantity of sheep, deer,
etc., on which the carnivora feed.

The restlessness, craving for novelty, and love of excitement, so
characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon, and to a less extent of some other
European races, has its correspondence in the food of these races.
Highly-seasoned and nitrogenous foods act as a stimulant and favour
spasmodic, and for a time perhaps, great intellectual and physical
exertion, with a succeeding period of exhaustion. Simpler food favours
long, sustained, uniform muscular strength, clearness of intellect, and
contentment. Let no one misunderstand us; we do not assert that all who
live on simple food have either clear intellects or are contented, because
there are other factors besides food, but that such qualities are more
easily retained or obtained under that condition. It is well known that
the over-fed and badly fed are the most irritable and discontented Those
living on a stimulating dietary consisting largely of flesh have their
chief successes in feats of short duration. Simple and abstemious living
individuals or races excel in laborious work requiring endurance over long
periods, such as long walking, cycling, and other athletic feats and long
military campaigns.

The digestive and assimilative organs need the food constituents of which
we have written, in proper proportion and quantity, and in a fairly
digestible condition. Within these very wide and comprehensive limits, the
organs can be trained. Very much of the great difference in food is due to
the non-essential flavouring and stimulating part, rather than to that
part which is essential and nourishing. What is the best, interests but
few; whilst what is at present the pleasantest, influences the many. The
ego, the superphysical conscious and reasoning entity should rule its
material body, its temporary vehicle. The body, being the servant of the
ego, just as a horse, dog, or other of the lower animals recognises its
master, becomes a docile subject. The body can be led into good habits
nearly as easily as into bad ones; often more easily, as bad habits are
sometimes painfully acquired. The body being once habituated to certain
movements, conditions, foods or drinks, within reasonable limits, derives
pleasure therefrom and resists change. It is only when the food, etc.,
transgresses certain elementary principles, that the result is more or
less painful. We may on scientific principles condemn flesh-foods,
stimulants and elaborately prepared foods; but after ruling all this out,
there is still left a very great variety of foods and methods of preparing
them: hereon each individual must form his own opinion. Of the foods thus
left, the same kind is not equally suitable to everyone, nor even to the
same person at different periods.

A delicately balanced, fine-grained, high-toned mind and body responds to
every tender influence, and is painfully jarred by that which is coarse.
To such, fruits and delicately flavoured and easily digested foods are
doubtless best and conducive to purity and clearness of thought. A
coarse-grained, badly poised, roughly working body and spirit, is
non-responsive except to loud or coarse impulses; and such a one's
appetite is gratified, not by simple but by coarsely seasoned foods.

A person who is accustomed to a stimulating dietary of flesh-foods,
especially if well-seasoned, finds a simple diet unsatisfying. Should such
persons dine off simple vegetarian food, there is a tendency to
over-eating. The less stimulating food fails to rouse the digestive organs
and to appease the appetite; although an ample supply of nourishment be
consumed. This is the reason why so many imagine that it is necessary to
eat a larger quantity of food if it be vegetable. Should a distressing
fulness and flatulence result from their over-feeding, they lay the blame
to the vegetarian dietary instead of to themselves. Most persons, on
changing to a vegetarian dietary, commence by imitating flesh dishes in
appearance and flavour and even in the names. There is the additional
inducement that the food may be attractive and palatable to friends who
lack sympathy with the aesthetic and humane principles of the diet. After
a while many of them incline to simpler flavoured foods. They revert to
the unperverted taste of childhood, for children love sweets, fruits, and
mild-flavoured foods rather than savouries. One who loves savouries, as a
rule, cares much less for fruits. By compounding and cooking, a very great
variety of foods can be prepared, but the differences in taste are much
less than is usually, supposed. The effect of seasoning instead of
increasing the range, diminishes it, by dulling the finer perception of
flavours. The predominating seasoning also obscures everything else. The
mixture of foods produces a conglomeration of tastes in which any
particular or distinct flavours are obscured, resulting in a general
sameness. It is often stated that as an ordinary flesh-eater has the
choice of a greater range of foods and flavours than a vegetarian, he can
obtain more enjoyment, and that the latter is disagreeably restricted.
Certainly he has the choice, but does he avail himself of it to any
considerable extent? No one cares to take all the different kinds of food,
whether of animal or vegetable that are possible. Of edible animals but a
very few kinds are eaten. A person who particularly relishes and partakes
largely of flesh-foods will reject as insipid and unsatisfying many
mild-flavoured foods at one end of the scale. The vegetarian may abstain
from foods at the opposite end of the scale, not always from humane
reasons, but because they are unpleasant. Thus there may be little to
choose between the mere range of flavours that give enjoyment to each
class of persons. The sense of taste is in its character and range lower
than the sense of sight and hearing. The cultivation of the taste for
savouries seems to blunt the taste for fruits and the delicate foods. The
grass and herbs on which the herbivora subsist, seems to our imagination
of little flavour and monotonous; but they eat with every sign of
enjoyment, deliberately munching their food as though to get its full
flavour. In all probability they find a considerable range of flavours in
the great varieties of grasses commonly found together in a pasture.

Our elaborate cooking customs entail a vast amount of labour. They
necessitate the cost, trouble and dirt from having fires in great excess
of that required for warmth: the extra time in preparing, mixing and
attending to food which has to be cooked: and the large number of greasy
and soiled utensils which have to be cleaned. Cooked savoury food is
generally much nicer eaten hot, and this necessitates fires and attention
just previous to the meal. We have already said that soft cooked food
discourages mastication and leads to defective teeth. Our elaborate
cookery is mainly due to our custom of eating so largely of flesh, whilst
the eating of flesh would receive a great impetus on the discovery of the
art of cooking. Flesh can only be eaten with relish and with safety when
cooked. Such a large proportion of it is infected with parasites, or is
otherwise diseased, that it would he dangerous to eat it raw, even were it
palatable in such a state. In those countries where man eats flesh in a
raw or semi-cooked form, parasitic diseases are common. There is not the
least doubt that our habit of eating so much cooked food is responsible
for much over-eating, hasty eating, dyspepsia and illness. In regard to
the making of bread, porridge, and many other comparatively simple
prepared foods, the advantages of cooking seem overwhelmingly great. With
our present imperfect knowledge and conflicting opinions, it is
impossible to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion, and the whole
question requires careful and impartial investigation. Experiments have
been made with animals, chiefly pigs, with cooked and uncooked clover,
hay, corn, meal, etc. (U.S. Department of Agriculture). It was found that
the food was more or less diminished in digestibility by cooking. At least
13 separate series of experiments with pigs in different part of the
country have been reported. In 10 of these trials there has been a
positive loss from cooking the food. The amount of food required to
produce in the animal a pound gain in weight was larger when the food had
been cooked than when it was given raw. In some cases, the increased
quantity of food required after cooking was considerable.

Those who live on uncooked food contend that a smaller quantity of
nourishment is required. As uncooked food requires more mastication and is
eaten more slowly, there is a better flow of saliva and time is given for
the digestive organs to be gradually brought into complete action, and
finally for the appeasing of the appetite. In the case of the members of
the fruitarian family, whose food was uncooked, and of whom we have
previously written, the quantity of nutriment taken was much less than
that thought necessary, even after making full allowance for their small
stature and weight.

Meat Extracts.--Justus von Liebig, the great German chemist, was the
first to attempt to make these on the commercial scale. He described a
method in 1847, and this not proving satisfactory, another one in 1865. He
stated that the only practicable plan on a manufacturing scale, was to
treat the chopped flesh with eight to ten times its weight of water, which
was to be raised to 180° F. In another passage he says it is to be boiled
for half-an-hour. After straining from all the undissolved meat fibre,
etc., and carefully cleansing from all fat, the decoction is to be
evaporated to a soft extract; such a preparation is practically free from
albumin, gelatin and fat; all the nutritive principles except the saline
matter having been extracted. Liebig states that 34 pounds of meat are
required to produce 1 pound of extract. In 1872, he wrote "neither tea nor
extract of meat are nutritive in the ordinary sense," and he went on to
speak of their medicinal properties. Druit, in 1861, in describing the
effect of a liquid preparation of meat, states that it exerted a rapid and
stimulating action on the brain, and he proposed it as an auxiliary and
partial substitute for brandy, in all case of great exhaustion or weakness
attended with cerebral depression or despondency. In like manner, a feast
of animal food in savages, whose customary diet was almost exclusively
vegetable, has been described by travellers as producing great excitement
and stimulation similar to that of intoxicating spirits. Similar effects
have been observed from a copious employment of Liebig's extract. Voit
asserts, from the results of his experiments, that extract of meat is
practically useless as a food, and other authorities are quite of the same
opinion, although they may value it as a stimulant and drug. _The Extra
Pharmacopæia_, 1901, states that "Liebig's Extract or Lemco consists of
creatin, creatinin, globulin and urea, with organic potash and other
salts. It has been much over-estimated as a food either for invalids or
healthy persons; still it is often valuable as a flavouring to add to
soups, beef-tea, etc., and it is a nerve food allied to tea." Meat
extracts stimulate the action of the heart and the digestive processes,
but as in the case of other stimulants there is a succeeding period of
depression. The _British Medical Journal_ says that the widespread belief
in the universal suitability of concentrated beef-tea is frequently
responsible for increasing the patient's discomfort, and is even capable
in conditions of kidney inefficiency, of producing positive harm. Some of
the meat bases, the leucomaines, have been found to possess marked
poisonous effects on the body. The manfacturers of meat extracts continue
to mislead the public by absurdly false statements of the value of their
products. They assert that their extracts contain the nutritive matter of
30, 40 or 50 times their weight of fresh meat, or that one or two
meat-lozenges are sufficient for a meal. One company, asserts by direct
statement, or imply by pictorial advertisement, that the nutritive matter
in an ox can be concentrated into the bulk of a bottle of extract; and
another company that a tea-cup full is equivalent in food value to an ox.
Professor Halliburton writes: "Instead of an ox in a tea-cup, the ox's
urine in a tea-cup would be much nearer the fact, for the meat extract
consists largely of products on the way to urea, which more nearly
resemble in constitution the urine than they do the flesh of the ox."
Professor Robert Bartholow has also stated that the chemical composition
of beef-tea closely resembles urine, and is more an excrementitious
substance than a food. Those whose business it is to make a pure
meat-broth, for the purpose of preparing therefrom a nutrient for
experimenting with bacteria, cannot fail to recognise its similarity both
in odour and colour to urine. Little consideration is needful to show the
untruthfulness and the absurdity of the statements made by manufacturers
as to the food value of these extracts. Fresh lean beef contains about 25
per cent. of solid nutriment and 75 per cent. of water. If lean beef be
desiccated, one pound will be reduced to four ounces of perfectly dry
substance; this will consist of about 80 per cent. of proteid matter and
nearly 20 per cent. of fat including a little saline matter and the
extractives. This is as far as it is possible to concentrate the beef. If
it were possible to remove, without interfering with the nutritious
constituents, the membraneous matter, the creatin, creatinine and purin
bodies, we should reduce it to a little less than four ounces. It is very
remarkable that the most nutritious matter of the beef, the muscle
substance or proteid and the fat, are rejected in making Liebig's extract,
whilst the effete or waste products are retained. In Bovril and some other
preparations, some meat fibre has been added with the object of imparting
a definite food value. Hence in some advertisements, now withdrawn, it was
alleged that the preparations were immensely superior in nutritive value
to ordinary meat extracts. The Bovril Company extensively circulated the
following:--"It is hard for ladies to realise that the beef tea they make
at home from the choicest fresh beef contains absolutely no nourishment
and is nothing more than a slight stimulant. It is so, however, and many a
patient has been starved on beef tea, whether made from fresh beef or from
the meat extracts that are sold to the public. From these Bovril differs
so much that one ounce of its nutritious constituents contains more real
and direct nourishment than fifty ounces of ordinary meat extract." If
analyses of meat extracts are referred to, it will be seen that the
principal part of Bovril is the meat bases and other things common to all
such extracts, and which the Company in their circular so emphatically
condemn. If the meat fibre, which is the principal, if not the sole
difference, is the only nourishing constituent, it is difficult to see the
advantage over ordinary beef, which can be procured at a very small
proportionate cost. Concerning this added meat fibre, C.A. Mitchell, in
"Flesh Foods," writes: "As this amounts to at most some 8 or 10 per cent.,
it is obvious that a large quantity of the substance would be required to
obtain as much unaltered proteid as is contained in an egg. On the other
hand, it has been pointed out that there is nothing to show that flesh
powder suspended in meat extract is more digestible than ordinary flesh in
the same fine state of division, whilst the amount of flesh bases, the
principal stimulating agents, is correspondingly reduced." Concerning
added albumin and meat fibre, A.H. Allen, in "Commercial Organic
Analysis," vol. iv., writes: "The amount of these constituents present in
such a quantity of meat extract as is usually, or could be, taken at a
time, is too insignificant to give it any appreciable value as nutriment."
Notwithstanding such statements by analysts and others, Bovril is
advertised to contain "the entire nourishment of prime ox-beef." The great
extent of the extract of meat trade is shown by a circular issued by the
Lemco and Oxo Company. They give the number of their cattle killed since
1865 as 5,550,000; stock of cattle 160,000; employees in works, farms and
branches, 3,200. This is only one out of many such companies. It is a sad
thing that myriads of animals should be slaughtered with all the horrible
and brutalising surroundings of the slaughter-house to such a purpose--the
nutritious matter being nearly all wasted. Reliance on these extracts is
responsible for much sickness and death. Instead of their preventing
colds, influenza, and other complaints as is professed, they predispose to
them by overloading the body with waste products, taxing the excretory
organs and reducing the vitality. The following analyses of meat extracts
are by Otto Hehner:--

Gela- Albu- Meat
Water. Fat. tin. min. Fibre.

Liebig Co.'s Extractum Carnis 15.26 0.34 5.18 -- 2.12
Armour's Extract of Meat 15.97 0.21 3.31 -- --
Brand & Co.'s Extractum Carnis 17.85 0.38 4.56 -- 1.81
Brand & Co.'s Meat Juice 55.48 0.10 0.69 1.00 --
Brand & Co.'s Essence of Beef 89.68 0.06 5.12 -- --
Valentine's Meat juice 55.53 0.10 0.75 0.25 --
Bovril Company's Fluid Beef 28.34 1.02 3.81 -- 5.37
Bovril for Invalids 24.34 1.07 4.56 -- 5.87

Albu- Pep- Meat
moses. tones. Bases. Ash.
Liebig Co.'s Extractum Carnis 2.01 8.06 39.32 23.51
Armour's Extract of Meat 1.75 5.13 41.12 29.36
Brand & Co.'s Extractum Carnis 4.19 10.16 38.90 18.80
Brand & Co.'s Meat Juice 1.06 2.50 12.50 11.06
Brand & Co.'s Essence of Beef 0.19 0.57 3.43 1.00
Valentine's Meat juice 2.00 2.87 12.48 12.01
Bovril Company's Fluid Beef 8.38 13.18 19.38 17.67
Bovril for Invalids 5.56 6.44 34.07 16.50

Some of the "Liebig's Extract of Meat" so called, contains yeast extract;
some even, is almost entirely, if not altogether made from yeast. The
latter can be manufactured at a very low cost from brewers' and
distillers' waste products, and there is a strong incentive for
unscrupulous dealers to substitute it secretly. Artificial meat extracts
prepared from yeast have the appearance and taste of meat extracts, but
some, at least, have a considerably sharper flavour. In one method of
manufacture common salt is added, and this renders it unfit for use in
more than very small quantities as a flavouring. J. Graff has made
analyses of ten yeast extracts, and contrasted them with meat extracts
(see _Analyst_ 1904, page 194), and says, "It will be seen that the
chemical composition of yeast extract does not greatly differ from that of
meat extract." Yeast extracts contain purin bodies, and are probably
equally as injurious as meat extracts. Such strong and rank flavours (the
odour is suggestive to us of putrefaction) should be discouraged by those
who would cultivate a refined taste in food.

Flesh Bases and Waste Products.--As the result of destructive
metamorphosis or the wearing out of the body, there remain certain waste
products which have to be expelled as soon as is possible. Their retention
and accumulation would soon produce death. A part is expelled by the
lungs as carbon-dioxide, or as it is generally though less correctly
termed, carbonic acid. Upon the breaking down of the complex proteid and
other nitrogenous matter, the nitrogen is left in comparatively simple
combinations. These effete nitrogen compounds are commonly termed flesh
bases or nitrogenous extractives. They exist in small quantity in flesh
meat, but are concentrated and conserved in the making of beef-tea or
beef-extract. The spleen, lymphatic and other glands, and especially the
liver, break these down into still simpler compounds, so that the kidneys
may readily separate them from the blood, that they may pass out of the
body. By far the largest part of this waste nitrogen is expelled from the
bodies of men and many other mammals in the form of urea. Pure urea is an
odourless transparent crystalline substance, of cooling saline taste like
nitre. It is soluble in an equal volume of water, and is expelled from the
body with great ease. In the herbivora the nitrogenous waste takes the
form of another body called hippuric acid. The nearly solid light-coloured
urinary excretion of birds and serpents consists of urates; this is uric
acid in combination with alkalies. In man, in addition to the urea
excreted, there is also a little hippuric and uric acid or compounds of
these. Uric acid is a transparent colourless crystalline body almost
insoluble in water but soluble as urates in the presence of alkalies. As
deposited from urine it is of a dull red sand-like appearance, as it has a
great affinity for any colouring matter that is present.

It is only possible to make a brief reference to the chief organic bases.
The xanthine bases are closely related to uric acid. Some of these occur
in small quantity in the urine and animal tissues, others, such as
caffeine, occur in plants. Creatine is a constant constituent of muscle
substance. In fowl's flesh there is said to be 0.32 per cent., in cod-fish
0.17 per cent., and in beef 0.07 per cent. Creatinine is produced from
creatine with great facility; it exists in urine. Both creatine and
creatinine are readily soluble in water. A series of bases, closely allied
to creatinine have been isolated from the flesh of large animals by A.
Gautier; they are known as Gautier's flesh bases. When administered to
animals, these act more or less powerfully on the nerve centres, inducing
sleep and in some cases causing vomiting and purging in a manner similar
to the alkaloids of snake venom, but less powerfully than the ptomaines.
These bases are formed during life as a result of normal vital processes
and are termed leucomaines.

Another class of bases of an alkaloidal nature, are termed ptomaines;
these differ from the leucomaines, being produced by putrefactive or
bacterial agency from dead flesh. The poisoning which has occasionally
resulted from the eating of sausages, pork-pies, tinned meats, etc., is
due to their having contained ptomaines.

Such quantities of waste products as are produced in the healthy body are
excreted with ease, but it is otherwise in certain diseases. Either
specially noxious substances are produced, or the usual substances are in
excessive quantity and not eliminated with sufficient rapidity; in
consequence the body is poisoned. Those who eat largely of flesh,
introduce into their system the excretory matter contained therein, which
super-added to the excretory matter resulting from the vital processes of
the body puts an unusual and unnatural strain upon the liver and kidneys.
It has been observed, that the eating of the flesh of some trapped animals
has produced severe symptoms of poisoning. The pain and horror of having a
limb bleeding and mangled in a most cruel steel trap, the struggles which
only add to the misery, slowly being done to death during hours or even
days of torture, has produced in their bodies virulent poisons. Leucomaine
poisons have also been produced by the violent and prolonged exertions of
an animal, fleeing from its pursuers, until its strength was completely
spent. Cases are also known, where a mother nursing her infant, has given
way to violent anger or other emotion, and the child at the breast has
been made violently ill. We must not expect the flesh of any hunted or
terrified animals to be wholesome. Animals brought in cattle ships across
the Atlantic, suffer acutely. After rough weather they will often arrive
in a maimed condition, some being dead. To this is added the terror and
cruelty to which they are subjected whilst driven by callous drovers,
often through a crowded city, to the slaughter house to which they have an
instinctive dread. It is only to be expected that the dead flesh from such
animals, should contain an unusually large quantity of the more poisonous
flesh bases.

Purin Bodies.--The term purin has been applied to all bodies containing
the nucleus C_{5}N_{4}. It comprises the xanthine group and the uric acid
group of bodies. The principal purins are hypoxanthin, xanthin, uric acid,
guanin, adenin, caffeine and theobromine. Purins in the body may either
result from the wear and tear of certain cell contents, when they are
called endogenous purins; or they are introduced in the food, when they
are distinguished as exogenous purins. These purins are waste products and
are readily converted into uric acid. The production of some uric acid by
tissue change is, of course, unavoidable; but that resulting from the
purins in food is under control.

An excess of uric acid is commonly associated with gout and similar
diseases. The morbid phenomena of gout are chiefly manifested in the
joints and surrounding tissues. The articular cartilages become swollen,
with ensuing great pain. There is an accumulation of mortar like matter
about the joints. This is calcium urate (not sodium urate as is generally
stated). These nodular concretions are called tophi or chalkstones.

Very many are the hypotheses which have been propounded on the cause of
gout and the part played by uric acid; many have had to be discarded or
greatly modified. Though much light has recently been thrown on the
subject, there remains much that is obscure. The subject is one which is
surrounded with great difficulties, and would not be suitable for
discussion here, were it not for the following reason: Certain views on
uric acid as the cause of gout and several other diseases, are at the
present time being pushed to the extreme in some health journals and
pamphlets. Unfortunately many of the writers have very little knowledge,
either of chemistry or physiology, and treat the question as though it
were a simple one that had been quite settled. Our purpose is to clear the
ground to some extent, for a better understanding of its fundamentals,
and to warn against dogmatism. Our remarks, however, must be brief. It is
undeniable that great eaters of meat, especially if they also take
liberally of alcoholic drinks, are prone to diseases of the liver and
kidneys, about or soon after the time of middle life. Flesh meat contains
relatively large quantities of purins. Purins are metabolised in the body
to uric acid, about half of the uric acid produced in the body disappears
as such, being disintegrated, whilst the other half remains to be excreted
by the kidneys.

One view is that whilst the organs of the body can readily dispose of its
endogenous uric acid, or that produced by its own tissue change, together
with the small amount of uric acid derived from most foods, the organs are
strained by the larger quantity introduced in flesh-food or any other food
rich in purins: that there is an accumulation in the system of some of
this uric acid. Vegetable foods tend to keep the blood alkaline, flesh
possesses less of this property; alkalinity of the blood is thought to be
favourable to the elimination of uric acid, whilst anything of an acid
nature acts contrarily. Dr. Alexander Haig writes "I consider that every
man who eats what is called ordinary diet with butcher's meat twice a day,
and also drinks acid wine or beer, will, by the time he is 50, have
accumulated 300 to 400 grains of uric acid in his tissues, and possibly
much more; and about this time, owing to the large amount of uric acid in
his body, he will probably be subject to attacks of some form of gout or
chronic rheumatism." Dr. Haig ascribes to the presence of uric acid in the
system, not only gout and rheumatism, but epilepsy, hysteria, mental and
bodily depression, diseases of the liver, kidneys, brain, etc.

The opinion of the majority of eminent medical men, during recent years,
is that uric acid is not a cause, but a symptom of gout, that uric acid is
not an irritant to the tissues, and that it is readily excreted in the
healthy subject. Some of the reasons for this latter and against the
previously stated hypothesis, are as follows:--Birds very rarely suffer
from gout--the nodular concretions, sometimes found about their joints and
which have been ascribed to gout, are of tuberculous origin--yet their
blood contains more uric acid than that of man, and the solid matter of
their excretion is mainly urates. If uric acid caused gout we should
expect the disease to be common in birds. It is a remarkable fact that the
waste nitrogen should be excreted in the form of uric acid or urates from
such widely differing classes of animals as birds and serpents. Birds
have a higher body temperature than man, they are very rapid in their
movements and consume a large amount of food proportionate to their
weight. They live, as it were, at high pressure. Serpents, on the other
hand, have a low body temperature, they are lethargic and can live a long
while without food. There is no obvious reason why some animals excrete
urea and others uric acid. As uric acid is a satisfactory and
unirritating form in which waste nitrogen is expelled from the body of the
active alert bird, as well as from the slow moving reptile, it is
surprising if a very much smaller quantity acts as a poison in man. Many
physicians are convinced that uric acid is absolutely unirritating. Uratic
deposits may occur to an enormous extent in gouty persons without the
occurrence of any pain or paroxysms. Urates have been injected in large
amounts into the bodies of animals as well as administered in their food
with no toxic result whatever, or more than purely local irritation. The
most careful investigations upon the excretions of persons suffering from
gouty complaints, have failed to show uric acid in the excretions in
excess of that in normal individuals, except during the later stage of an
acute attack. There is an excess of uric acid in the blood of gouty
subjects; some eminent medical men say it is in the highest degree
probable, that this excess is not due to over production or deficient
destruction, but to defective excretion by the kidneys. The excess may
arise from failure of the uric acid to enter into combination with a
suitable substance in the blood, which assists its passage through the
kidneys. Under the head of gout are classed a number of unrelated
disturbances in the gastro-intestinal tract and nutritive organs, whose
sole bond of union is that they are accompanied by an excess of urates,
and in well developed cases by deposits in the tissues. This is why there
are so many different causes, curative treatments, theories,
contradictions and vagaries in gout. There are good reasons for believing
that uric acid is not in the free state in the body. In the urine it is in
combination with alkalies as urates, perhaps also with some organic body.
It has been shown that the blood of the gouty is not saturated with uric
acid, but can take up more, and that the alkalinity of the blood is not
diminished. The excess over the normal is in many cases small; it is said
to be absent in some persons, and rarely, if ever reaches the quantity
found in leukaemia. Leukaemia is a disease marked by an excessive and
permanent increase in the white blood corpuscles and consequent
progressive anæmia. Neither does the uric acid of gout reach the quantity
produced in persons whilst being fed with thymus gland (sweetbread), for
medical purposes. In neither of these cases are any of the symptoms of
gout present. In the urine of children, it is not unusual to find a
copious precipitate of urates, yet without any observed effect on them.

The symptoms of gout point to the presence of a toxin in the blood, and it
is this which produces the lesions; the deposition of urates in the joints
being secondary. This poison is probably of bacterial origin, derived from
decomposing fæcal matter in the large intestine. This is due to faulty
digestion and insufficient or defective intestinal secretions and
constipation. This explains why excessive feeding, especially of proteid
food, is so bad. The imperfectly digested residue of such food, when left
to stagnate and become a mass of bacteria and putrefaction, gives off
poisons which are absorbed in part, into the system. This bacterial poison
produces headache, migraine, gouty or other symptoms. Because of the
general failure of gouty persons to absorb the proper amount of nutriment
from their food, they require to eat a larger quantity; this gives a
further increase of fæcal decomposition and thus aggravates matters. The
voluminous bowel or colon of man is a legacy from remote pre-human
ancestors, whose food consisted of bulky, fibrous and slowly digested
vegetable matters. It was more useful then, than now that most of our food
is highly cooked. About a third part of the fæcal matter consists of
bacteria of numerous species, though chiefly of the species known as the
_bacillus coli communis_, one of the less harmful kind which is a constant
inhabitant of the intestinal tract in man and animals. This species is
even thought to be useful in breaking down the cellulose, which forms a
part of the food of the herbivora. Flesh meat leaves a residue in which
the bacteria of putrefaction find a congenial home. Poisons such as
ptomaines, fatty acids and even true toxins are produced. It is believed
that there exists in the colons of gouty persons, either conditions more
favourable to the growth of the bacteria of putrefaction, or that they are
less able to resist the effect of the poisons produced. It has generally
been found that milk is a very good food for gouty patients. This seems
due to its being little liable to putrefaction, the bacterial fermentation
to which it is liable producing lactic acid--the souring of milk. The
growth of most bacteria, particularly the putrefactive kinds are hindered
or entirely stopped by acids slightly alkaline media are most favourable.
This explains how it is that milk will often stop diarrhoea.

Dr. Haig condemns pulse and some other vegetable foods, because, he says,
they contain uric acid. Pulse, he states, contains twice as much as most
butcher's meat. Vegetable foods, however, contain no uric acid and meat
but a very small quantity. The proper term to use is purins or nucleins.
Dr. Haig has used a method of analysis which is quite incapable of giving
correct results. Many vegetarians have accepted these figures and his
deductions therefrom, and have given up the use of valuable foods in
consequence. We therefore give some of the analyses of Dr. I. Walker Hall,
from "The Purin Bodies in Food Stuffs." The determination of the purins
has proved a very difficult process. Dr. Hall has devoted much time to
investigating and improving the methods of others, and his figures may be
accepted with confidence.

The first column of figures indicates purin bodies in parts per 1,000, the
second column purin bodies in grains per pound:--

Sweet bread 10.06 70.4
Liver 2.75 19.3
Beef steak 2.07 14.5
Beef Sirloin 1.30 9.1
Ham 1.15 8.1
Chicken 1.3 9.1
Rabbit 0.97 6.3
Pork Loin 1.21 8.5
Veal loin 1.16 8.14
Mutton 0.96 6.75
Salmon 1.16 8.15
Cod 0.58 4.07
Lentils and haricots 0.64 4.16
Oatmeal 0.53 3.45
Peameal 0.39 2.54
Asparagus (cooked) 0.21 1.50
Onions 0.09 0.06
Potatoes 0.02 0.1

The following showed no traces of purins: white bread, rice, cabbage,
lettuce, cauliflower and eggs. Milk showed a very small quantity, and
cheese consequently must contain still less.

The researches of Dr. Hall show that the purins of food are metabolised or
broken down by gouty patients, almost as well as by normal individuals,
any slight retention being due to increased capillary pressure. A portion
of the purins remain undigested, the quantity depending upon the
particular purin and the vigour of the digestive organs. Two rabbits had
the purin hypoxanthin given to them daily, in quantities which if given to
a man in proportion to his weight, would have been 17 and 3 grains
respectively. These rabbits showed malnutrition, and after death
degenerative changes were visible in their liver and kidneys. Dr. Hall has
made a large number of personal experiments, and says that when he has
taken large doses of purin bodies--such as 7 grains of hypoxanthin, 15 to
77 grains of guanin or 7 to 15 grains of uric acid, apparently associated
symptoms of general malaise and irritability have frequently appeared. In
gouty subjects such moderate or small quantities of purins which are
without effect on the healthy subject, may prove a source of irritation to
the already weakened liver and kidneys.

Professor Carl von Noorden says of gout, "with regard to treatment we are
all agreed that food containing an excess of purin bodies should be
avoided, and those words embody almost all there is to be said as to
dietetics. Alcohol is very injurious in gout. Salicylic acid is a
dangerous remedy. Alkalies in every form are utterly useless." Dr. J.
Woods-Hutchinson says, "the one element which has been found to be of the
most overwhelming importance and value in the treatment of gout and
lith¾mia, water, would act most admirably upon a toxic condition from any
source; first, by sweeping out both the alimentary canal primarily, and
the liver, kidneys and skin secondarily; and secondly, by supplying to the
body cells that abundant salt-water bath in which alone they can live and
discharge their functions." Dr. Woods-Hutchinson proceeds to state, that
the one active agent in all the much vaunted mineral waters is nothing
more or less than the water. "Their alleged solvent effects are now known
to be pure moonshine." The value consists in "plain water, plus
suggestion--not to say humbug--aided, of course, by the pure air of the
springs and the excellent hygienic rules."

It is a common experience amongst rheumatic patients, that they cannot
take lentils, haricots and some other foods; sometimes, even eggs and milk
are inadmissible. This is not for the alleged reason that they contain
purins, or as some misname it, uric acid; but because the digestive organs
are unequal to the task. It will be seen, that although Dr. Haig's
hypothesis of uric acid as a cause of gout and some other diseases is
disputed by many eminent physicians, his treatment by excluding flesh and
other foods which contain purins, and also pulse, which is difficult of
digestion by the weakly, is a wise one. It has proved of the greatest
value in very many cases.

Digestion and nutrition is a complex process, and it may be faulty at
various stages and in several ways; there may be either deficient or
excessive secretions or inaction. Thus there are exceptions, where gouty
symptoms, including an excessive quantity of urates in the urine, have
only been relieved by the giving up of milk foods or starch foods (see
_Lancet_, 1900, I., p. 1, and 1903, I., p. 1059).

Those particularly interested in the subject of the purins and gout are
referred to the lecture on "The meaning of uric acid and the urates," by
Dr. Woods-Hutchinson, in the _Lancet_, 1903, I., p. 288, and the
discussion on "The Chemical Pathology of Gout" before the British Medical
Association at Oxford (see _British Medical Journal_, 1904, II., p. 740).

Dr. George S. Keith, in "Fads of an Old Physician," has a chapter on
rheumatic fever; he says that the disease is much more common than it was
fifty years ago. He has never met with it in the young or old except when
the diet had consisted largely of beef and mutton, and this although he
has been on the outlook for at least forty years for a case of the disease
in a child or youth who had not been fed on red meat. He speaks of it as
being exceedingly common in Buenos Ayres and Rosario in the Argentine
Republic, amongst the young; and that it leads to most of the heart
disease there. The amount of meat, especially of beef, consumed by old and
young is enormous. The main evils there, were anæmia in children and
neuralgia both in old and young. Dr. Haig relates how he suffered from
migraine all his life, until the time of his discontinuing butchers' meat.
As meat contains a comparatively large quantity of purins and other bodies
called extractives, it is probable that such quantities have an injurious
effect, quite apart from the question of uric acid production. That an
excessive meat diet lessens the vitality of the body and pre-disposes to
disease is undoubted, but opinions differ as to how the injury is brought
about.

On thorough Mastication.--We have written at some length on the quantity
and constituents of food required per day and have criticised the usually
accepted standards. We have since read a valuable contribution to the
subject by Mr. Horace Fletcher in his book, "The A.B.-Z. of our own
nutrition" (F.A. Stokes & Co., New York). Ten years previous to the
writing of the book, when of the age of 4, he was fast becoming a physical
wreck, although he was trained as an athlete in his youth and had lived an
active and most agreeable life. He had contracted a degree of physical
disorder that made him ineligible as an insurance risk. This unexpected
disability and warning was so much a shock, that it led to his making a
strong personal effort to save himself. He concluded that he took too much
food and too much needless worry. His practice and advice is, be sure that
you are really hungry and are not pampering false appetite. If true
appetite that will relish plain bread alone is not present, wait for it,
if you have to wait till noon. Then chew, masticate, munch, bite, taste
everything you take in your mouth; until it is not only thoroughly
liquefied and made neutral or alkaline by saliva, but until the reduced
substance all settles back in the folds at the back of the mouth and
excites the swallowing impulse into a strong inclination to swallow. Then
swallow what has collected and has excited the impulse, and continue to
chew at the remainder, liquid though it be, until the last morsel
disappears in response to the swallowing impulse. In a very short time
this will become an agreeable and profitable fixed habit. Mr. Fletcher has
been under the observation of several eminent scientific men. Professor
R.H. Chittenden, of Yale University, in his report refers to the
experiments of Kumagawa, Sivén, and other physiologists; who have shown
that men may live and thrive, for a time at least, on amounts of proteid
per day equal to only one-half and one-quarter the amount called for in
the Voit standard (see p. 32), even without unduly increasing the total
calories of the food intake. Such investigations, however, have always
called forth critical comment from writers reluctant to depart from the
current standards, as extending over too short periods of time.

Dr. Chittenden writes that he has had in his laboratory, for several
months past, a gentleman (H.F.) who for some five years, practised a
certain degree of abstinence in the taking of food and attained important
economy with, as he believes, great gain, in bodily and mental vigour and
with marked improvement in his general health. The gentleman in question
fully satisfies his appetite, but no longer desires the amount of food
consumed by most individuals. For a period of thirteen days, in January,
he was under observation in Professor Chittenden's laboratory. The daily
amount of proteid metabolised was 41.25 grammes, the body-weight (165
pounds) remaining practically constant. Analysis of the excretions showed
an output of an equivalent quantity of nitrogen. In February a more
thorough series of observations was made. The diet was quite simple, and
consisted merely of a prepared cereal food, milk and maple sugar. This
diet was taken twice a day for seven days, and was selected by the subject
as giving sufficient variety for his needs and quite in accord with his
taste. No attempt was made to conform to any given standard of quantity,
but the subject took each day such amounts of the above foods as his
appetite craved. The daily average in grammes was, proteid 44.9 (1.58
ounces), fats 38.0, carbohydrates 253.0, calories 1,606. The total intake
of nitrogen per day was 7.19, while the output was 6.90. It may be asked,
says Professor Chittenden, was this diet at all adequate for the needs of
the body--sufficient for a man weighing 165 pounds? In reply, it may be
said that the appetite was satisfied and that the subject had full freedom
to take more food if he so desired. The body-weight remained practically
constant and the nitrogen of the intake and output were not far apart. An
important point is, can a man on such food be fit for physical work? Mr.
Fletcher was placed under the guidance of Dr. W.G. Anderson, the director
of the gymnasium of Yale University. Dr. Anderson reports that on the four
last days of the experiment, in February, 1903, Mr. Fletcher was given the
same kind of exercises as are given to the 'Varsity crew. They are drastic
and fatiguing and cannot be done by beginners without soreness and pain
resulting. They are of a character to tax the heart and lungs as well as
to try the muscles of the limbs and trunk. "My conclusion, given in
condensed form, is this: Mr. Fletcher performs this work with greater ease
and with fewer noticeable bad results than any man of his age and
condition I have ever worked with." "To appreciate the full significance
of this report, it must be remembered," writes Professor Chittenden, "that
Mr. Fletcher had for several months past taken practically no exercise
other than that involved in daily walks about town." Sir Michael Forster
had Mr. Fletcher and others under observation in his Cambridge
laboratories, and in his report he remarks on the waste products of the
bowel being not only greatly reduced in amount, as might be expected; but
that they are also markedly changed in character, becoming odourless and
inoffensive, and assuming a condition which suggests that the intestine is
in a healthier and more aseptic condition than is the case under ordinary
circumstances. If we can obtain sufficient nourishment, as Mr. Fletcher
does, on half the usual quantity of food, we diminish by half the
expenditure of energy required for digestion. By thorough mastication the
succeeding digestive processes are more easily and completely performed.
What is also of great importance is that there is not the danger of the
blocking up of the lower intestines with a mass of incompletely digested
and decomposing residue, to poison the whole body. Even where there is
daily defæcation, there is often still this slowly shifting mass; the end
portion only, being expelled at a time, one or more days after its proper
period. All this improved condition of the digestive tract, leaves more
vitality for use in other directions, a greater capacity for work and
clearness of brain.

Professor R.H. Chittenden, in "Physiological Economy in Nutrition,"
writes:--"Our results, obtained with a great variety of subjects, justify
the conviction that the minimum proteid requirements of the healthy man,
under ordinary conditions of life, are far below the generally accepted
dietary standards, and far below the amounts called for by the acquired
taste of the generality of mankind. Body weight, health, strength, mental
and physical vigour and endurance can be maintained with at least one-half
of the proteid food ordinarily consumed."

From these and other considerations, we see that it is not only
unnecessary, but inadvisable to diet ourselves according to any of the old
standards, such as that of Voit, or even to any other standard, until they
have been very thoroughly revised. We shall probably find that as the body
becomes accustomed to simpler food, a smaller quantity of the food is
necessary. The proportion of proteids to other constituents in all the
ordinary, not over manfactured vegetable foods, such as are generally
eaten, may be taken as sufficient. Several cookery books have been
compiled in conformity with certain proteid standards and also with some
more or less fanciful requirements; these give the quantities and kinds of
food which it is imagined should be eaten each day. Theoretically, this
should be calculated to accord with the weight, temperament, age and sex
of the eater and the work he or she has to perform. The dietaries that we
have seen have their proteid ratio placed unnecessarily high. This high
proteid ratio can be got by the use of the pulses, but except in small
quantities they are not generally admissible, and in some of the dietaries
they are ruled out. The difficulty is got over by the liberal use of eggs,
cheese and milk. To admit a necessity for these animal products is to show
a weakness and want of confidence in the sufficiency of vegetable foods.
Some of these cookery books are of use in sickness, especially as
replacing those of the beef-tea, chicken-broth, jelly and arrowroot order.
They provide a half-way stage between flesh and vegetable food, such as is
palatable to those who have not quite overcome a yearning for flesh and
stimulating foods. The liberal use of animal products is less likely to
excite the prejudice of the ordinary medical practitioner or nurse.
Possibly, also, a higher quantity of proteid may be required on first
giving up flesh foods.

The Use of Salt.--One of the most remarkable habits of these times is
the extensive use of common salt or sodium chloride. It is in all ordinary
shop bread, in large quantity in a special and much advertised cereal
food, even in a largely sold wheat flour, and often in pastry. It is added
to nearly all savoury vegetable food, and many persons, not content, add
still more at the time of eating. No dinner table is considered complete
without one or more salt-cellars. Some take even threequarters of an
ounce, or an ounce per day. The question is not, of course, whether salt
is necessary or not, but whether there is a sufficient quantity already
existing in our foods. Some allege that there is an essential difference
between added salt and that natural to raw foods. That the former is
inorganic, non-assimilable and even poisonous; whilst the latter is
organised or in organic combination and nutritive. The writer is far from
being convinced that there is a difference in food value. Some herbivorous
animals are attracted by salt, but not the carnivora. This has been
explained by the fact that potassium salts are characteristic of plants,
whilst sodium chloride is the principal saline constituents of blood and
of flesh. In their food, the herbivora take three or four times as much
potash salts as the carnivora. Of course, the sodium chloride in the flesh
of the herbivora and frugivora is obtained from the vegetable matter
forming their food, and very few of them have the opportunity of obtaining
it from salt-licks and mineral sources. They must have the power of
storing up the sodium chloride from plants in sufficient quantity, whilst
the potash salts pass away. There is no justification for saying that they
are worse off by being deprived of salt. If the ape tribe can thrive
without added salt why should not man? Bunge considers that a restriction
to vegetable food causes a great desire for salt. Opposed to this, is the
fact that certain tribes of negroes who cannot obtain salt, add to their
vegetable food wood ashes or a preparation of wood ashes; this is chiefly
potash. One preparation used in British Central Africa was found to
contain about 21 per cent. of potassium chloride to only 0.5 per cent. of
sodium chloride. It has been said that vegetarians consume more salt than
those who take flesh food. We doubt this; we know of many vegetarians who
have a strong objection to added salt, and have abstained from it for
years. Some find that it predisposes to colds, causes skin irritation and
other symptoms. At many vegetarian restaurants the food is exceedingly
salty; the writer on this account cannot partake of their savoury dishes,
except with displeasure. Nearly all who patronise these restaurants are
accustomed to flesh foods, and it is their taste which has to be catered
for. Flesh, and particularly blood, which of course, is in flesh, contains
a considerable quantity of sodium chloride; and most flesh eaters are also
in the habit of using the salt cellar. These people are accustomed to a
stimulating diet, and have not a proper appreciation of the mildly
flavoured unseasoned vegetable foods. Only those who have, for a time,
discontinued the use of added salt, and lost any craving for it, can know
how pleasant vegetables can be; even those vegetables which before were
thought to be nearly tasteless, unless seasoned, are found to have very
distinct flavours. It is then perceived, that there is a much greater
variety in such foods than was previously imagined. It is commonly urged
that salt and other condiments are necessary to make food palatable and to
stimulate the digestive functions. We, on the contrary, say that
condiments are the cause of much over-eating; and that if food cannot be
eaten without them, it is a sign of disorganisation of the digestive
system, and it is better to abstain from food until the appearance of a
natural and healthy appetite. An excess of salt creates thirst and means
more work for the kidneys in separating it from the blood prior to its
expulsion. Even should it be admitted, that certain vegetables contain too
little sodium salts, a very little salt added to such food would be
sufficient; there is no excuse for the general use of it, and in such a
great variety of foods. It is thought that some cases of inflammation of
the kidneys originate in excessive salt eating; certain it is that
patients suffering from the disease very soon improve, on being placed on
a dietary free from added salt and also poor in naturally contained sodium
and potassium salts. It is also possible to cause the swelling of the legs
(oedema), to which such invalids are subject, to disappear and reappear at
will, by withdrawing and afterwards resuming salt-containing foods. The
quantity of one-third of an ounce, added to the usual diet, has after a
continuation of several days, produced oedema. In one patient, on a diet
of nearly two pounds of potatoes, with flesh, but without added salt, the
oedemia disappeared and the albumin in the urine diminished. As potatoes
are particularly rich in potash salts, this case is significant, as
showing contrary to expectations, that such quantity as they contained had
not the irritating effect of added common salt. Salt and other chlorides
have been shown by several observers, to be injurious, not only in
diseases of the kidneys, but also of the liver and heart. In these
diseases the excess of salt is retained in the tissues, it causes a flow
of fluid into them, and so produces oedema and favours the increase of
dropsy. The good effect of milk in such diseases has long been known; it
is probably due to its relative poverty in sodium and potassium chlorides.
Even in the case of three healthy men, by an abrupt change from a diet
extremely rich in chlorides to one deficient, they were able to reduce the
body-weight by as much as two kilos. (4 lbs. 6 oz.); this was by the loss
of an excess of water from their connective tissues. Sodium chloride
diminishes the solvent action of water on uric acid and the urates; but
potassium salts, on the contrary, do not, they may even increase the
action. Although nearly all the medical experience recorded has to do with
diseased persons, such cases are instructive; it is only reasonable to
suppose, that more than a very small quantity of salt in excess of that
natural to the food, is a source of irritation in the body, even of the
ordinarily healthy individual.

Summary.--Enjoyment of food is dependent upon appetite quite as much as
upon the nature of the food. Better a simple repast with good appetite
than sumptuous fare with bad digestion. There is indeed a causal
relationship between simplicity and health. The savage likes the noise of
the tom-tom or the clatter of wooden instruments: what a contrast this is
to the trained ear of the musician. Uncivilised man has little enjoyment
of scenery or of animal life, except as in respect to their power of
providing him with food, clothing or other physical gratification. What an
enormous advance has taken place. In the case of the painter, his eye and
mind can appreciate a wide range and delicacy of colour. Man has improved
on the crab-apple and the wild strawberry. From a wild grass he has
produced the large-grained nutritious wheat. Vegetables of all kinds have
been greatly improved by long continued cultivation. In tropical and
sub-tropical climates, where wild fruits are more plentiful, high
cultivation is of less importance than in temperate regions. In sparsely
inhabited or wild, temperate and cold regions, in times past, when deer
and other animals were plentiful, and edible fruits few, flesh could be
obtained at less labour; or such intelligence and industry as is required
for the cultivation of fruits, cereals, and other foods scarcely existed.
Flesh almost requires to be cooked to be palatable, certainly this much
improves its flavour. The eating of flesh tends to produce a distaste for
mild vegetable foods, especially if uncooked. In process of time, not only
flesh but vegetable foods, were more and more subjected to cooking and
seasoning, or mixed with the flesh, blood or viscera of the animals
killed. Next, food was manufactured to produce a still greater variety, to
increase the flavour, or less frequently to produce an imagined greater
digestibility or nutritiveness. Man has taken that which seemed most
agreeable, rarely has he been intentionally guided by scientific
principles, by that which is really best. Only of late years can it be
said that there is such a thing as a science of dietetics; although
cookery books innumerable have abounded. Of recent years many diseases
have enormously increased, some even seem to be new. Digestive
disturbances, dental caries, appendicitis, gout, rheumatism, diabetes,
nervous complaints, heart disease, baldness and a host of other diseases
are due, in a great measure, to abuse of food. One of the most learned and
original of scientific men, Professor Elie Metchnikoff, in his remarkable
book on "The Nature of Man," referring to the variety of food and its
complexity of preparation says that it "militates against physiological
old age and that the simpler food of the uncivilised races is better....
Most of the complicated dishes provided in the homes, hotels and
restaurants of the rich, stimulate the organs of digestion and secretion
in a harmful way. It would be true progress to abandon modern cuisine and
to go back to the simpler dishes of our ancestors." A few have lived to a
hundred years, and physiologists, including Metchnikoff, see no inherent
reason why all men, apart from accident, should not do so. Most men are
old at 70, some even at 60; if we could add 20 or 30 years to our lives,
what an immense gain it would be. Instead of a man being in his prime, a
useful member of the community, from about 25 to 60 or perhaps to 70; he
would have the same physical and mental vigour to 80 or 90 or even longer.
This later period would be the most valuable part of his life, as he would
be using and adding to the accumulated experience and knowledge of the
earlier period.

Some, perceiving the mischief wrought by luxurious habits, urge us to go
back to nature, to eat natural food. This is ambiguous. To speak of
animals as being in a state of nature, conveys the distinct idea of their
living according to their own instinct and reason, uninterfered with, in
any way, by man. The phrase, applied to man, is either meaningless, or has
a meaning varying with the views of each speaker. If it has any definite
meaning, it must surely be the giving way to the animal impulses and
instincts; to cast off all the artifices of civilisation, to give up all
that the arts and sciences have done for man, all that he has acquired
with enormous labour, through countless failures and successes, during
hundreds of thousands of years, and to fall back to the lowest
savagery--even the savages known to us use art in fashioning their arms,
clothing and shelter, to the time when man was a mere animal. Civilised
man is not only an animal, but an intellectual and spiritual being, and it
is as natural for him to clothe himself as for a cow to eat grass. Our
intellect has been made to wait on our animal nature, whilst our spiritual
has lagged far behind. Animal food and all else of a stimulating
character, stimulates the lower nature of man, his selfish propensities;
whilst mild food makes it easier to lead a pure life. In the treatment of
habitual drunkards in retreats, it has been found that a permanent cure is
rare upon the usual abundant flesh dietary. Only by the use of vegetable
food, particularly farinaceous, can a permanent cure be assured. The
editor of the Clarion, Mr. R. Blatchford, or "Nunquam," has lately adopted
a vegetarian diet. He remarks with surprise, that although he has been a
heavy smoker for more than 30 years, using not less than eight ounces of
tobacco a week, often two ounces in a day, he has found his passion for
tobacco nearly gone. He has had to get milder tobacco, and is now not
smoking half-an-ounce a day. He says "it does not taste the same; I am not
nearly so fond of it." He finds, with regard to wine, that he now cannot
drink it, "it tastes like physic." He writes: "These things have come upon
me as a revelation. I begin to see that the great cure for the evil of
national intemperance is not teetotal propaganda, but vegetarianism."

We have given reasons of a scientific character, for abstaining from flesh
as food, but higher than these are those relating to ethics. Everything
relating to the slaughter-house is revolting to a refined and humane
person. In the great slaughter-houses of Chicago; in those huge hideous
box-shaped buildings, five or six storeys high, about ten millions of
animals are killed every year. They are treated as if they were bales of
merchandise and as destitute of feeling. Bullocks are struck on the head
with a mallet and let fall into the basement of the building. They are
whilst stunned or half-stunned, at once strung up by their hind legs to
some machinery, which moves them along, their heads hanging downwards.
Regardless of their agony, men run after them to cut their throats,
followed by others with great pails to catch the blood. Much of the warm
blood is spilt over the men or on the floors; but this is of no
consequence, if but a small fraction of a minute is economised. In a short
time, whether the animal has bled long enough or not, it reaches the
lowest and darkest and worst ventilated portion of the gloomy building,
where it is disembowelled. The walls and floors are caked with blood, the
place is filthy, there is no proper lavatory accommodation, everything
both to eyes and nose is detestable. Even if the windows were kept clean,
light could not penetrate into the centre of the buildings. Consequently a
large part of the work is done by artificial light. Tuberculosis is
prevalent amongst the workpeople living under such unsanitary conditions.
Serious crime is much more common amongst them than amongst any other
class.

We English-speaking people, who pride ourselves on our civilisation and
religion; who call ourselves the followers of the gentle Jesus, the Prince
of Peace; yet hunt, shoot, trap and torture animals for food sport and
science. Our main reason for eating flesh is that of personal
gratification. We are loath to admit that the lower animals have any
rights. Those Eastern peoples who are adherents to the teachings of the
gentle Buddha hold life sacred. Mr. H. Fielding, who lived many years
amongst the simple-minded Burmese, says that though there is now no law
against the sale of beef, yet no respectable Burman will even now, kill
cattle or sell beef. No life at all may be taken by him who keeps to
Buddhistic teaching, and this is a commandment wonderfully well kept. "He
believes that all that is beautiful in life is founded on compassion and
kindness and sympathy--that nothing of great value can exist without them.
Do you think that a Burmese boy would be allowed to birds'-nest or worry
rats with a terrier, or go ferreting? Not so. These would be crimes. That
this kindess and compassion for animals has very far-reaching results, no
one can doubt. If you are kind to animals, you will be kind, too, to your
fellow-men."

By participating in any form of cruelty or injustice, not only to our
fellow-men, but also to the lower animals, we retard our progress towards
the higher life, the subtler forces in man cannot find their full
expression and we are less responsive to spiritual influences.

Printed by
Hurst Bros., Shaw Heath, Stockport.

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| soda. It contains no animal or mineral matter. An ideal dentifrice. |
| |
| We guarantee these statements, and will return the money to anyone |
| dissatisfied with the result of a trial. For 1/6 we will send, post |
| paid, a large assorted box, say with Shaving soap (cake or stick), |
| or Tooth soap as required. Also a pretty Enamelled Matchholder, |
| representing a cottage fireside in this Irish village. |
| |
| _(Dept. S.)_ D. BROWN & SON, Donaghmore, Tyrone, Ireland. |
|______________________________________________________________________|

______________________________________________________________________
| |
| EMPIRE LINEN MESH UNDERWEAR. |
| |
| A CONTRAST. |
| |
| _EMPIRE LINEN MESH UNDERWEAR_ _WOOLLEN UNDERWEAR_ |
| |
| Is a clean vegetable product Is an animal product and cannot |
| be properly cleansed |
| Preserves the Natural heat of the Creates unnatural heat |
| body |
| Is porous and open, allowing the Becomes felted and chokes the |
| skin to breathe pores |
| Absorbs moisture very rapidly Absorbs moisture very slowly |
| Dries very rapidly Dries very slowly |
| Radiates away all moisture from Retains the moisture of the body |
| the pores |
| Can be easily cleansed Cannot be boiled without |
| destroying the fabric |
| Hardens and strengthens the Enervates and enfeebles the |
| system system |
| Does not shrink in washing or wear Always shrinks |
| Prevents chills and colds Encourages chills and colds |
| Prevents and relieves Rheumatism Promotes Rheumatism and similar |
| diseases |
| Does not irritate the most Causes Rash and other skin |
| sensitive skin troubles |
| Cures and prevents prickly heat Irritates all skin diseases |
| _________ _________ |
| |
| "They shall be clothed with Linen "And no wool shall come upon |
| garments."--Ezekiel 44.17 them."--Ezekiel 44.17 |
| "But Flax, that cleanest and best "For wool the excretion of a |
| production of the field, is used sluggish body taken from |
| not only for the inner and outer sheep." &c.--Apuleius |
| clothing,"--Apuleius "I go woolward for penance." |
| "They'll find linen enough." --Shakespeare |
| --Shakespeare |
| |
| _Booklets telling all about this underwear, together with patterns |
| of materials can be had free._ |
| The IRISH LINEN MESH CO., Cathedral Buildings, Belfast. |
|______________________________________________________________________|

______________________________________________________________________
| |
| MAPLETON'S |
| NUT FOODS |
| Stand the test alike of time, experience and chemical |
| analysis. They are daily used by all classes in the community, and |
| have been awarded after full analysis the certificate of the |
| Institute of Hygiene, 34 Devonshire St., Harley St., London, W. |
| |
| _These foods were largely used at the Vegetarian Society's Summer |
| School at St. Andrews._ |
| |
| Send for full descriptive Price List from the manufacturer, |
| Hugh Mapleton, 2 and 3 Dolphin St., Ardwick, Manchester, |
| also at Bristol and Hamburg. |
|______________________________________________________________________|

______________________________________________________________________
| |
| The Broadbent Health Booklets. |
| |
| ONE PENNY EACH. |
| |
| 1. How to Keep Warm |
| 2. Bread: Its Influence on Health |
| 3. Constipation Prevented by Diet |
| 4. Dyspepsia Prevented by Diet |
| 5. Dangers in Food (for sufferers from Rheumatisms) |
| 6. Rheumatism and Gout Prevented by Diet |
| 7. Children: Their Health and Food |
| 8. Complexions made Beautiful |
| 9. Nervousness Prevented by Diet |
| 10. The Secrets of Longevity |
| |
| _London:_ R.J. James. London House Yard, E.C. |
| _Philadelphia:_ THE BROADBENT PRESS. 1023 Foulkrod St., Frankford. |
| _Price 3 cents. Special quotations from the Author for quantities--_ |
| _ALBERT BROADBENT, F.S.S., 257 DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER._ |
|______________________________________________________________________|

*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Chemistry of Food and Nutrition" ***

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