248 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
EGGS. 
THE only complete food afforded by the animal kingdom is | 
the egg: containing, as it does, all the alimentary substances 
required for the support, and maintenance of animal life. 
For their plentiful store of varied sustenance Eggs, in the hands 
of the cook, and the doctor, may be well described as veritable 
“Treasure houses wherein lie, 
Locked by angels’ alchemy, 
Milk and hair, and blood, and bone.” 
The early Christians took the egg as a symbol of their hope a 
to the body’s resurrection. Broadly speaking, the domestic 
fowl’s egg consists of yolk and white as edible parts, within the 
hard shell made up chiefly of carbonate of lime. When compared 
with moderately lean meat the egg contains two-thirds as much 
primary food (proteid), twice as much fatty substance, twice as 
much ash, and about an equal quantity of water. The proteid 
includes what chemists call nuclein, which affords phosphorus, 
as a nerve renovator, in organic combinations, some thereof being 
united to iron ; but this is not in the Egg a source of uric acid, 
else eggs would be improper for gouty persons. Nevertheless, 
Dr. Haig (whose personal experiences are in several respects 
exceptional), maintains that Eggs do actually cause an increased 
excretion of uric acid. He says “I gradually eliminated from 
my diet all articles which contained even the smallest quantity 
of egg, having obtained very distinct evidence that these, when 
taken every day, decidedly increased with me the excretion of 
uric acid.”” Dr. Hutchison supposes, “ the white of Eggs to be 
unobjectionable food for grow‘ng boys, but the yolk, though 
nearly a complete form of food (except for starches, which may 
be readily superadded by bread and butter), comprises something 
akin to the uric acid in meat. If it should be suspected that at 
any time the urine contains albumen, such as white of egg, 
then a simple bedside test which is sufficiently reliable may 
be easily employed. Four or five drops of the urine, as 
passed on first rising, should be put into a glass of clear 
hot water, when, if any albumen is present, it will be 
indicated by an opalescence. If the glass is held against 
a dark background, this opalescence will be very visible, and will 
be seen to spread through the water like a cloud of smoke. 
Phosphates in the urine will produce a similar appearance ; but 
