34 Report on the Means of Supplying the Poor with Food. 



Sugar, we have stated, is one of the constituents of flour, and 

 such was the effect of feeding animals upon it alone. Starchy another 

 more important constituent of flour, was also given to animals, per se, 

 with a remarkable result. In the pulverulent form dogs would not 

 even look at it. When made into a paste with water, dogs, rather 

 than taste it, preferred to die of starvation. Even when cooked with 

 butter, lard, sugar, or bread, they refused, generally, to make use of 

 it, and if some did take it for a certain time, they never failed to 

 perish of starvation. 



The effects resulting from feeding animals upon gluten alone, are 

 highly worthy of attention. The gluten was prepared from wheat 

 and from Indian corn. It was taken by dogs without difficulty on 

 the first day, and the animals continued to live on it for three months, 

 without any interruption, — the amount swallowed by each daily being 

 about four or five ounces. 



What is usually termed gluten, contains, mixed with it, other sub- 

 stances, which are soluble in alcohol. The residual portion, after 

 this treatment, is pure vegetable albumen, being identical in composi- 

 tion with the curd of milk. The fact deserves attention, that foreign 

 wheat contains a much greater amount of albumen than that of this 

 country. Odessa wheat contains, according to Vauquelin, 14^ per 

 cent. French wheat 11 per cent. Vogel found in German wheat 22 

 per cent, and Zeimenck 15 per cent. We have already stated, that 

 by experiment, only 6 per cent, existed in Glasgow flour of last year's 

 growth. Vegetable albumen, of the same composition, and possessing 

 the same properties as gluten of wheat, is found in large proportion 

 in peas and beans. The common pea contains 181 per cent, of albu- 

 men ; kidney beans 18i per cent. We have therefore suggested to 

 us the importance of peas, in a nutritive point of view, and the pro- 

 priety of their admixture with other articles of food. For example, 

 in soups, a sprinkling of peas would produce a body in the soup ; and 

 this observation applies to soup intended both for the rich and the 

 poor. Care should be taken, however, that they should be well boiled, 

 and if allowed to digest for a day previous to use, in water at the 

 temperature of blood heat, as is done with seeds before sowing, they 

 would be softened, and even partially dissolved. The water in which 

 they are digested might be employed for the purpose of making the 

 soup. Cabbage, according to Boussingault, is a very nutritive sub- 

 stance, and, in the form of powder or flour, we can employ it in mix- 

 ture with soup, in a less bulky state than under the usual form. 



Peas afford a means of increasing the nutritive property of differ- 

 ent kinds of meal. Most persons are familiar with the mixture of 

 peas and barley-meal, which affords a wholesome bread. Peas-meal 

 might also be mixed with oat-meal, in the same manner, if considered 

 expedient 



We have hitherto confined our attention to vegetable food. Ex- 



