380 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



function of the palate, and derived from a study of the table. For it 

 is certain that nine tenths of the gormandism which is practiced, at all 

 events in English society where for the most part it is a matter of 

 faith without knowledge is no more a source of gratification to the 

 eater's gustatory sense than it is of digestible sustenance to his body. 



Our subject now shapes itself. Food must first be regarded in 

 relation to its value as material to be used for building up and sus- 

 taining that composite structure, the human body, under the varied 

 conditions in which it may be placed. Secondly, the selection of food, 

 and the best modes of preparing it, resulting in the production of " the 

 dish," a subject of great extent and importance, must be dealt with 

 very briefly. Lastly, the exercise of taste in relation to the serving of 

 food and drink, or the art of combining dishes to form " a meal," must 

 also be considered. 



I shall not regard this as the place in which to offer any scientific 

 definition of the term " food." I shall include within its range all the 

 solid materials popularly so regarded, and therefore eaten. And drink 

 being as necessary as solids for the purpose of digestion, and to supply 

 that large proportion of fluid which the body contains in every mesh 

 and cell thereof, I shall regard as " drink" all the liquids which it is 

 customary to swallow with our meals, although probably very few, if 

 any, of them can be regarded as food in any strict sense of the term. 



Food is essential to the body in order to fulfill two distinct pur- 

 poses, or to supply two distinct wants inseparable from animal life. 

 As certainly as a steam-engine requires fuel, by the combustion or 

 oxidation of which force is called into action for various purposes as 

 the engine itself requires the mending and replacing of parts wasted 

 in the process of working so certainly does the animal body require 

 fuel to evoke its force, and material to replace those portions which 

 are necessarily wasted by labor, whether the latter be what we call 

 physical or mental that is, of limbs or of brain. The material which 

 is competent to supply both requirements is a complete or perfect food. 

 Examples of complete food exist in milk and the egg, sufficing as these 

 do for all the wants of the young animal during the period of early 

 growth. Nevertheless, a single animal product like either of the two 

 named, although complex in itself, is not more perfect than an arti- 

 ficial combination of various simpler substances, provided the mixture 

 (dish or meal) contains all the elements required in due proportion for 

 the purposes of the body. 



It would be out of place to occupy much space with those element- 

 ary details of the chemical constitution of the body which may be 

 found in any small manual of human physiology;* but for the right 



* Such as " Physiology," Science Primer, by M. Foster, M. A., M. D. (MacmillanJ ; 

 " Lessons in Elementary Physiology," by Professor Huxley (Macmillan). For a full con- 

 sideration of the subject, Dr. Pavy's very complete " Treatise on Food and Dietetics" 

 (Churchill, London, 1875). 



