172 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



modified for the several children ; for the child of two should have 

 neither the amount nor the variety of food that may be served to 

 the child of fourteen. Those who saw the exhibit carried away im- 

 pressions that it will be impossible for us to give by words alone. 

 We can, however, give a few of the more salient features of the 

 exhibit and point out some of the lessons we aimed to teach through 

 these meals. 



Food for children must fulfill three important functions : First, 

 it must build new tissue, for the child must develop from a small 

 individual into a much larger one ; second, it must repair worn-out 

 tissue, for the living processes of the body bring about a certain 

 amount of wear and tear of the body machinery; and third, it must 

 supply the energy needed by the body in carrying out its vital pro- 

 cesses, and in muscular work. For the building and repairing of 

 body tissue nitrogenous materials, or proteins, represented by eggs, 

 milk and meat, are required; while for the production of energy 

 for muscular work the fats, supplied by butter, cream and the 

 meat fats, and the carbohydrates, represented by starch and sugar, 

 are used to greater advantage. Besides these three classes of 

 materials, namely, protein, fats and carbohydrates, the body needs 

 both water and mineral substances. The former, water, acts as 

 a solvent for the building materials, removes the wastes, especially 

 those that are excreted through the kidneys, and is of importance 

 in regulating the temperature of the body through evaporation ; the 

 latter, the inorganic materials, found most abundantly in vege- 

 tables, fruit and milk, are necessary for bone formation, for regu- 

 lating the osmotic tension of the body fluids and for maintaining 

 the irritability of the living protoplasm. 



Each meal supplied to the child or adult must contain these 

 five food elements; and it is not enough that these are supplied to 

 each individual, they must be supplied in rather definite quantities; 

 for should an insuflficient amount of any one be taken, or an ex- 

 cessive amount, that is, for any considerable time, the body would 

 either be under-nourished or be made to work unnecessarily in 

 order to eliminate the waste products produced by the excess. 

 Fortunately for us, the body is able to adjust itself, within limits, 

 to the amounts of the various substances supplied. If too much 

 butter or sugar is taken the body can store them, and when an 

 insufficient amount is fed this reserve material may be utilized. If 

 an excess of nitrogenous material is taken that is more than is 

 needed for immediate growth and repair, the larger part of the 



