THE CHEMISTRY OF COOKERY. 823 



tion of the skin secretion should be primary in connection with this 

 question. 



Seeing that this has been entirely neglected, I am justified in ex- 

 pressing, very plainly and positively, my opinion of the worthlessness 

 of all the modern research upon which the alleged refutation of Lie- 

 big's theory of the destruction and renewal of living tissue in the 

 performance of vital work is based, and my rejection of the modern 

 alternative hypothesis concerning the manner in which food supplies 

 the material demanded for muscular and mental work. 



I may be accused of rashness and presumption in thus standing 

 almost, if not quite, alone in opposition to the overwhelming current 

 of modern scientific jDrogress. Such, however, is not the case. It is 

 modern scientific fashion, rather than scientific progress, that I op- 

 pose. We have too much of this millinery spirit in the scientific world 

 just now ; too much eagerness to run after " the last thing out," and 

 assume, with undue readiness, that the " latest researches " are, of course, 

 the best — especially where fashionable physicians are concerned. 



XLIX. THE MODERN THEORY OF FOOD. 



In my last I summarized Liebig's theory of the source of vital 

 power, and its supposed refutation by modern experiments, but had 

 not space to state the substituted theory. I will now endeavor to do 

 80, though not without difficulty, nor with satisfactory result, seeing 

 that the recent theorists are vague and self-contradictory. All agree 

 that vital power or liberated force is obtained at the expense of some 

 kind of chemical action of a destructive or oxidizing character, and is, 

 therefore, theoretically analogous to the source of power in a steam- 

 engine ; biit, when they come to the practical question of the demand 

 for working fuel or food, they abandon this analogy. 



Pavy says (" Treatise on Food and Dietetics," page 6) : " In the 

 liberation of actual force, a complete analogy may be traced between 

 the animal system and a steam-engine. Both are media for the con- 

 version of latent into actual force. In the animal system, combustible 

 material is supplied under the form of the various kinds of food, and 

 oxygen is taken in for the process of respiration. From the chemical 

 energy due to the combination of these, force is liberated in an active 

 state ; and besides manifesting itself as heat, and in other ways pe- 

 culiar to the animal system, is capable of performing mechanical 

 work." In another place (page 59 of the same work), after describing 

 Liebig's view, Dr. Pavy says : "The facts which have been already 

 adduced (those described in my last paper) suffice to refute this doc- 

 trine. Indeed, it may be considered as abundantly proved that food 

 does not require to become organized tissue before it can be rendered 

 available for force-production." On page 81 he says : " While nitro- 

 genous matter may be regarded as forming the essential basis of struct- 

 ures possessing active or living properties, the non-nitrogeyious princi- 



