682 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ceeds by 25,200 grains the 4,800 grains of carbon which, are actually 

 wanted. 



C. My carnivorous tendencies, then, may not be so very extrava- 

 gant, after all. I never ate 6 pounds of lean meat, or a third of that 

 amount. I do not think I have suffered any sort of harm from the 

 nitrogen which I may have taken in excess ; I am sure I could never 

 eat 4 pounds of bread, or half that amount, with impunity. 



M. There is no occasion for you to eat these monstrous quantities 

 of meat or bread. You must eat 6 pounds of lean meat every day if 

 if you take nothing else but lean meat ; you must eat 4 pounds of 

 bread every clay if you take nothing else but bread ; but you may 

 get on very well upon a comparatively small allowance of meat and 

 bread if the two were combined in proper proportions. You want 

 every day 4,800 grains of carbon and 300 grains of nitrogen ; you 

 find what you want, as Dr. Pavy shows, in 2 pounds of bread and in 

 about f pound of lean meat, thus : 



Carbon. JTitrogen. 



14,000 grains (2 pounds) of bread contain 4,200 grains. 140 grains. 



C,500 " (about f pound) of lean meat contain COS " 165 " 



Total 4,805 " 305 " 



C. I quite shrink from the notion of having to take so much as 2 

 pounds of bread to make up for the daily waste of my body. 



31. You need not take so much, or an} T thing like so much, if you 

 will take fat with your meat, or butter with your bread, or any oily 

 matter in proper quantity. Fat is very rich in carbon, and so are all 

 fatty and oily matters. You would have the 4,800 grains of carbon 

 and the 300 grains of nitrogen which you want, if you took f pound 

 of lean meat and about 2\ ounces of fat. In proportion as you in- 

 crease the amount of fatty or oily matter, you may diminish the 

 amount of bread ; and, within certain limits, which you may deter- 

 mine for yourself, you may probably please yourself as to the relative 

 proportions of the two. Whether you would get on satisfactorily by 

 excluding bread altogether, and taking fatty matter in its stead, is 

 another question. The growing chick within the egg has plenty of 

 oily matter to feed upon, and nothing of the nature of starch or sugar, 

 or any other carbo-hydrate to take the place of bread. The sucking 

 mammal finds a large amount of oily matter in the milk upon which 

 it feeds, and a somewhat larger amount of lactine, or sugar of milk, 

 Avhich, as a carbo-hydrate, may more or less take the place of bread. 

 In the hen's egg, the proportion of fatty matter to albuminous matter 

 is as 82 grains to 110 grains. In cow's milk the proportion of fatty 

 matter to lactine is as 351 grains to 468 grains, and of these two sub- 

 stances in conjunction, together with caseine, as 811 grains to 369 

 grains. In 2 pounds of bread and f pound of lean meat the propor- 

 tion of fatty matter to carbo-hydrates is as "944 ounce to 16'320 



