20 Transactions of the 



The following new members were elected ; — 

 Honorary. — Rev. J. Greene, M.A. 



Ordinary. — C. B. Brownlow, J. Duncuft, 



L. B. Ffooks, C. Brittan, 



J. Heath, C. Whittt, 



W. Hughes, R T. Saunders. 

 Present, 36 members and visitors. 



MEETING, March 31, 1870. 

 Dr. Debus, President, in tbe Chair. 



The minutes of the previous Meeting having been read and 

 confirmed, C. T. Blanshard read a paper on ' Pood.' 



The writer opened his paper with a statement of the chief 

 functions of food, explaining more fully its use as a source of 

 heat, and comparing it to the fuel of a steam-engine. He 

 then went on to describe the process by which food is con- 

 verted into blood. The following is an extract : — 



' All the bodies that can be taken as food may be classed 

 under four heads — firstly, those which are termed proteids ; 

 secondly, fats ; thirdly, amyloids ; and fourthly, minerals — 

 that is to say — minerals contained in either animal or vege- 

 table products ; for those which are not in such a condition 

 are mostly injurious. To the class proteids belong the 

 fibrin of the blood, syntonin, the constituent of flesh and 

 muscle, the gluten of flour, albvimen, casein, and some other 

 substances having very nearly the same chemical composition. 

 All these contain carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and, 

 in the case of some, sulphur and phosphorus also. Pats and 

 oils are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen only, and 

 are the more important, inasmuch as they produce heat, 

 rather than for the small amount of tissue that they are able 

 to form. Amyloids are bodies also useful for the production 

 of heat, consisting of the same elements as the fats ; but the 

 amount of hydrogen and oxygen in them is in the same 

 ratio — that of two to one— as it is in water. To this class 

 belong starch, sugar, and gum. There are many mineral 

 substances contained in the human body, the chief of which 

 are phosphates, calcium, fluorine (found in small quantities 

 in the bones and brain), sulphur, chloride of sodium, iron 

 (which is supposed to impart the red colour to blood), salts 



