' 212 ' [Senate 



cles and under the skin, and the sugar, except a part of it, being con- 

 verted into fat, is gradually resolved into the various secretions, tears, 

 mucous, saliva, perspiration, &c. 



The use of the oil and sugar as types of the two great classes of 

 oleaginous and saccharine food, have been made an interesting sub- 

 ject of investigation, and shown to be the source of heat in the ani- 

 ^ mal body. 



The use of the caseine as the type of the nitrogenized or albumi- 

 nous compounds, has already been referred to. It makes the muscle,. 

 the tendon, the tissues, brain and integuments. 



The appetite demands an admixture of these. Bread is chiefly 

 composed of starch and gluten — substances allied to sugar and caseine. 

 Civilized men, everywhere, overspread the piece of bread with butter 

 or oil, that the three kinds of food may be mingled. Rice must be 

 eaten with butter or sugar. Potatoes with gravy, which consists of 

 the expressed nitrogenized juices of meats. A meal cannot be made 

 the laborer feels, without meat for the nitrogenized constituent, the 

 caseine; potatoes, or rice, or bread for the saccharine ingredient, the 

 sugar; and butter or gravy for the oleaginous constituent, or the oiL 



The student, whose muscles make no expenditures, thinks the meat 

 non-essential. He can live on bread and ale. 



The Greenlander, who fears the severity of his high northern lati- 

 tude, thinks oil the great essential, and devours pure fat and tallow 

 with a relish akin to that of more southern men for sugar. 



To return. Some kinds of food are better adapted to fatten cattle 

 and sheep. Why ? Because they contain more oil. 



Some are better adapted to sustain cattle in labor. Why 1 Because 

 they contain more of the substances expended in service. 



HI. It is not only true that different kinds of food contain in une- 

 qual proportions, the caseine, the oil, and the sugar ; but also true,, 

 that varieties of the same grain have them in varying proportions, and 

 the same variety of grain has them in unequal proportions if grown 

 upon soils of unequal fertility ; and even in two successive seasons,. 

 one season being adapted in the amount of its sunshine and dew and 

 rain, to advance the crop and bring out a large return, and the other 

 with its cloud and mildew and drouth, fitted to shrivel the stalk and 

 starve the kernel. 



The grain of corn may be dissected so as to display the several 

 principles of which it is composed. 



The cotyledon or embryo, contains the earthy matters, and most 

 of the nitrogenized substances that contribute to the formation of the 

 organic tissues in general. 



The circle immediately around the cotyledon contains a salt of a 

 peroxide of iron. This is to serve in coloring the blood. The bulk 

 of the seed is composed of starch and oil. The oil goes to fatten, 

 the starch to supply matter for various secretions, and to some extent 



