26 



August 30. — Excursion to Hampton Court instead of Burnham Beeches as 

 announced, owing to distance of the Beeches from Railway Station. Owing to 

 alteration few attended. 



September 4. — S2nd Usual Gossip. 



September 18. — 127th Ordinary Meeting. In the absence of Dr. Tayler 

 who was announced to lecture, a paper was read by the Hon. Secretary, Mr. 

 M. J. Lindsey, jun., on "Food and its use." The essayist said the necessity 

 for taking food was apparent to everybody, but the reason why we took it was 

 not so obvious. Take for instance a man weighing 154 lb. ; he would lose by 

 the various vital processes of his body from 31b. to 41b. in the course of the day; 

 this must be made good, and was one of the reasons we took food. But 

 food not only nourished the body, but it maintained its heat. At different 

 times there had been various classifications of foods, but he had selected the 

 one given by Dr. Lankester as being the simplest and the best. Dr. Lankester 

 divided foods into "necessary," and "auxiliary," the "necessary " including 

 (l) mineral, such as water, salt, ashes ; (2) carbonaceous or heat. giving, such 

 as starch, sugar, fat ; (3) nitrogenous or nutritious, albumen, fibrine, caseine, 

 and the "auxiliary," being sub-divided into (l) stimulants as alcohol, (2) 

 neurotics as the alkaloids, (3) narcotics as tobacco. Water and salt might be 

 regarded as amongst the most important of the constituents of our daily food. 

 The carbonaceous foods were required in great measure for keeping up the heat 

 of our bodies, and to shew how necessary a constant supply of this carbon was 

 it might be mentioned that a full-grown healthy man emitted 8|oz. of carbon 

 daily from his lungs. Foods containing starches were very useful in maintain- 

 ing the heat of the body, and also in the production of fat. Starch is almost 

 the most abundant product of the vegetable kingdom. It was to be obtained 

 from most grasses, also from the seeds of the pea, bean, lentil, lic, and was 

 also very abundant in the cells of the potato, and in the roots of the tapioca 

 and arrowroot. The following comparative table would shew to what extent 

 starch was present in some of our foods : — Arrowroot, 82.0; rice, 80.0; wheatcn 

 bread, 47.0 ; potatoes, 20.0 ; carrots, 8.0 ; turnips, 5.0 ; parsnips, 9.0 percent. 

 Starch was of itself quite insufficient to support life as it contained no nitrogen ; 

 but it was exceedingly useful when mixed with other foods. After describing 

 at some length the nature and use of sugar, fats and oils, the lecturer proceeded 

 to consider the nitrogenous foods, or foods that supplied our bodies with nitrogen. 

 Nitrogen could not lake the place of food, and it was only when combined with 

 the carbonaceous foods that the nitrogenous foods could be assimilated. About 

 aoo grains of nitrogen were estimated as required daily by a full-grown man. 

 A pound of Cheddar cheese contained 300 grains of nitrogen, and this was why 

 a working man regarded it so highly. The essayist then gave a most interest- 

 ing description of bread making and the various methods by which the rising 

 of the dough was obtained, including Whiting's and Dauglish's patent processes 

 Drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic, fish, vegetarianism having in turn been 

 considered, Mr. Lindsey remarked that good digestion was greatly assisted by 

 cheerfulness. A much larger amount of food could be disposed of properly 

 digested when we were in the company of two or three old friends, than if 

 we took our dinners alone. The state of mind also has a very great effect on 

 the digestive powers. For an active man three meals a day were necessary, 

 whereas a person sitting all day would require but two meals a day, one in the 

 morning and one in the afternoon. 



September 27. — Excursion to Tooting Bee. Attendance small owing to 

 bad weather. 



October i. — 53rd Gossip as usual. 



