36 Report on the Means of Supplying the Poor ivith Food. 



food, or want of it, has not yot been pointed out by statistical data. 

 Numerous points for inquiry, however, present themselves to the 

 medical statistician in considering this question. IIow far are typhus, 

 scarlet fever, and other diseases of large towns, influenced by bad and 

 imperfect nutriment? And how far does the restriction to meagre 

 vegetable food operate upon mortality in Scotch towns? These aro 

 important considerations in Glasgow, where the rate of mortality is 

 higher than in the average of large towns ; indeed, greater in some 

 years than that of the worst parts of London. The following table 

 shows this: — 



PER CENT. 



Mortality of England and Wales, ...2-17 



Whitechapel, London, 3-86 1838. 



(3-23 1841. 



Glasgow, ft'J^ 1837. 



3-53 1836. 



3-26 Mean of last 10 years. 



Liverpool, '.3-18 1838. 



Manchester, 3-45 1838. 



Birmingham, 2*58 1838. 



Average Mortality of Towns, 2*62 1839. 



The mean duration of Life in Great Britain is about 46 ; in Glasgow, 

 30*6, — mean duration in towns, 38 years. 



The burden of all this starvation and mortality, of course, falls upon 

 the poor and helpless. It is only, therefore, the duty of those who 

 are in better circumstances to be aware of the facts, that they may be 

 remedied. 



Experience, the structure of the teeth, and of the digestive organs 

 of the human body, as well as the appetite, demonstrate, that the 

 flesh of animals should enter as an element into the food of man. 



Some kinds of animal food are digested with greater rapidity than 

 vegetable food. — Bread and coffee take about 41 hours to digest; fresh 

 beef, from 3 to 3i hours; salt beef, from 3 J to 51 hours; salt pork, 

 from 4i to 6 hours; mutton, 3i to 4| hours; fowls, 4 hours; veal, 

 from 4: to 51 hours; tripe, 1 hour; pig's feet, 1 hour. But these 

 numbers depend considerably upon the circumstances under which the 

 food is swallowed. If the quantity taken be in excess, slow digestion 

 is the consequence ; and the same holds good with regard to passions 

 of the mind. Exercise also promotes digestion. It is interesting to 

 know, that those substances which are most nutritive, arc not those 

 which are most rapidly digested. Gluten, which, according to Magendic, 

 is exceedingly nutritious, has been found in the stomach unaltered 

 five hours after being swallowed. Pig's feet, on the contrary, which are 

 digested in an hour, contain a large proportion of gelatin, or jelly, 

 which, according to the experiments of Magendic, possesses very in- 

 ferior nutritive properties. 



To those who aro in good circumstances, any of these substances 

 may be procured at pleasure. It is when looking at the poor, that wo 

 must view them in an economical point of view ; and with them the 



