THE NUTRITIVE SALTS OF FOOD. 405 



reality. Educated men were no longer disputative machines; they 

 were invigorated by the records of noble actions, they caught again the 

 fire of orators long since dead, they felt what it must have been to live 

 in the Athens of Pericles and Plato, or in the Rome that withstood 

 the victorious army of Hannibal; or, turning to modern times, they 

 saw in the new-born science of the age that which excited the highest 

 curiosity and hope. That complete severance and sharp-dividing line 

 which lay between the men of speculation and the men of action in the 

 Middle Ages was annulled in the sixteenth century, to the immense 

 advantage of both, and has never since been revived. But, since the 

 sixteenth century, there has been a fresh development of science, a 

 fresh creation of noble literature. Science is sure to have its advo- 

 cates, and to them it may safely be left. But shall we make no sys- 

 tematized effort to reap the full benefit of the writings of those great 

 authors, the lives of those transcendent statesmen, soldiers, and discov- 

 erers by land and sea, that have adorned the annals of Europe since 

 the birth of its present order ? It is incredible that we should not. 

 And few, indeed, must they be who have not reason to lament that 

 they have not been furnished with better means for acquainting them- 

 selves with that whole family of nations among whom our lives are 

 cast. We walk in the dark at present, and, as any one may know who 

 considers our recent political history, with tottering feet and uncertain 

 steps. Surely no further argument can be necessary to prove that all 

 knowledge which tends to throw light on our national relations is a 

 most important acquisition. 



And all our schools, all our educational bodies, except the old uni- 

 versities, are doing their best to remedy these our present defects. 

 But the universities are the keystone of the whole system ; all training 

 to which they do not give the final touch is defective and aimless ; and, 

 governed as they are by men of the highest ability and experience, it 

 stands to reason that they have advantages for organizing a scheme of 

 instruction which no ordinary school-master can have. Heavy are the 

 difficulties which oppose the cultivation of modern languages, even in 

 schools which take them up most zealously. Is it not the inevitable 

 conclusion that the universities are imperatively bound to supply some 

 central system of instruction in modern literatures ? Contemporary 

 Meview. 



* 



THE NUTRITIVE SALTS OF FOOD. 



By Pbof. VOIT. 



[ABSTRACT OF VOIT's BEPOBT, BT M. ANDRE SANSON.] 



N" order to understand the importance of'the nutritive salts in food, 

 we must first ascertain how far its mineral elements are nutritious, 

 how far they are indispensable, and when they may be considered as 

 in excess. 



I 



