Report on the Means of Supplying the Poor with Food. 



\4th February, 1842, — The President in the Chair. 



This Meeting was called for the purpose of receiving the followmg 

 Report from the Section on Physiology. 



X. — Report of the Section on Physiology, On the best Means of 

 Supplying the Poor with Cheap and Nutritious Food. Read by 

 Dr. R. D. Thomson. 



Much diflference of opinion has at various times existed, respecting 

 the proper origin of the food of man. Some have traced its legiti- 

 mate source to the vegetable kingdom, while others have denounced 

 any diet as bad, which did not contain a certain admixture of animal 

 food. The former have been sustained by the fact, that numerous 

 tribes of human beings subsist upon vegetable food alone ; while few 

 if any, have been met with, whose sole means of subsistence are 

 derived from the animal world. This objection, however, we believe 

 to be obviated in the natural history of the Esquimaux. During at 

 least the winter season of the year, these remarkable human anomalies 

 appear to subsist almost entirely upon the carcases of marine animals, 

 and contrary to the results which have been obtained by the French 

 commission, in feeding dogs upon fat, the Esquimaux feast upon 

 blubber and retain all their functions and faculties unimpaired. We 

 have, therefore, presented to us, in striking contrast, the inhabitants 

 of the torrid regions of India, existing upon vegetable food alone ; and 

 the Esquimaux on the skirts of the frozen sea, thriving upon the 

 grossest part of the animal kingdom. 



If the question were to bo raised, whether is vegetable or animal 

 food most nutritive, and most capable of sustaining animal Hie per sef 

 perhaps there would bo little hesitation in yielding the palm to the 

 former, inasmuch as all animal matter is in reality a modified form 

 of the produce of the vegetable kingdom. In the wheat plant for 

 example: — ^by the influence of vegetable organism — carbonic acid, 

 ammonia, water, are converted, in conjunction with sulphur and phos- 

 phorus, into albumen or gluten. The latter substance when trans- 

 ferred into the stomach is digested and deposited in the solid form, 

 denominated albumen or fibrin, without undergoing any alteration in 

 its chemical constitution. The vegetable organism is, therefore, the 

 original source of muscular fibre. The constituents of the fibre have 

 been produced by the plant from gaseous elements. Indeed, there 

 appears no evidence to favour the idea, that any solid is produced from 

 gases in the animal system. On the contrary, vegetables seem to be 

 tlie creators, if we may so speak, of all solid organic matter. Without 

 vegetable matter then, it is obvious no animal substance could exist 

 For in the animal system all the actions which have been demonstrated. 



