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are thus decomposed. Meats, on the contra' y, contain phosphate or 
nitrate of potash, which are are stable salts. These facts explain why 
mutton, although containing a certain amount o'f potash, is unable to 
prevent scurvy, whereas lime-iuice, for instance, with an equal quantity 
of this base, but in the state of super-citrate, acts as a true specific in the 
prevention of this disease. 
One word now, with your permission, about milk and wines ; 
because however succulent may be all the dishes we have spoken of so 
far, it seems to me that the subject is rather dry, it wants liquids. 
Milk, like eggs, is what we call a complete food. It contains albumin- 
ous substances ; casein and lacto-protein and albumen; fatty matter 
the butter ; a sugared substance, lactose ; saline principles, phosphates, 
and chlorides, and lastly water. Its digestion is most rapid, it is the 
food most quickly absorbed, requiring in the mean time the least 
digestive work possible. We must add that it is the nitrogenous com- 
pound which contains the smallest quantity of toxic alkaloids. 
Its nutritive value is certain. Unique aliment of the child during 
the first months that follow its birth, milk supplies it with all the 
materials necessary for a rapid growth. Even with adults, milk employed 
alone suffices for their alimentation, and we often observe that certain 
patients fed on strict milky diet obtain by it a sufficient nutrition. 
Lastly, it is an admirable therapeutic agent in some diseases of the 
stomach. In ulceration of that organ, for instance, milk given 
exclusive of all other food and even without any drugs whatever, acts in 
a truly specific manner 
I have, in the course of this paper repeatedly spoken of toxic 
alkaloids, products formed during digestion in the stomach. I think it 
proper to dwell a moment upon these curious phenomena which, 
although within the province of pathology, still have a proximate 
relation to alimentation and the functions of the digestive tube. You 
have all heard of microbes, and bacteria; micro-organisms, the discovery 
of which has had such an influence upon medical doctrines in general 
and the theory of infectious diseases in particular. 
It is to Pasteur that we owe the wonderful discovery of the role 
played in our planet by a whole world of infinitely small beings which, 
everywhere invisible and present, constitute by the manifestation of their 
