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the present day should compel themselves to spare some portion of time 

 at least to a study of nature and natural phenomena, and especially in 

 their broader and more philosophic aspects,and thus prepare themselves 

 to test, consider, and properly weigh the evidence brought forward in 

 support of a theory which, if it turn out true, we must, of course, 

 accept ; but if we can detect mistakes in its facts, or flaws in its 

 reasonings, we shall most of us be only too glad to hold by the faith of 

 our fathers and retain beliefs and hopes for here and hereafter, which 

 have been a source of solace and comfort to the generations that have 

 preceded us, rather than to let them go the way of worn-out 

 superstitions. 



MR. E. MOORE ON "BUTTER AS A NUTRIMENT: 

 ITS SOURCES AND ADULTERANTS." 



I suppose that, if the question— " Why do we eat butter?"— were 

 asked, the natural reply from most persons would be, " Because we like 

 it ; " and yet, unknown to ourselves, perhaps, we are following the 

 inexorable law of demand and supply from our bodies in the daily 

 introduction of fat food necessary for the reparation of the system by 

 supplying carbon lost through respiration. Anyhow, in some form or 

 other, it is essential to our physical well-being that some daily modicum 

 of fat should be presented to our digestive power; and butter 

 fat represents, to by far the larger portion of our population, the 

 most natural, as well as the most agreeable, form in which to take it. 

 With bread, butter, and milk, an infant, when dissevered from the 

 natural fount, will grow, forming fat, flesh, and bone. (The brain 

 power, however, has been ascribed to phosphorus by learned scientists 

 — hence, possibly, the disposition of clever children to suck lucifer 

 matches— this by the way.) The consumption of butter, then, as an 

 element of nutrition, is very great, and its cost seems likely each year 

 to become greater. As an article of diet, the value of butter is two- 

 fold ; first, from its very nature— and I allude essentially to true good 

 butter in contradistinction to the heavily-salted and partly rancid 

 samples ; its palatability recommends it, with a due proportion of starchy 

 food. Secondly, that, as a hydrocarbon its action is considerably more 



