CHAPTER VIII 

 FOOD 



CHEMISTRY OF FOOD— VARIETY OF FOODSTUFFS 

 AND FEEDING HABITS 



"From whence, my friends, in a human point of view, do we 

 derive the strength that is necessary to our hiubs? Is it," says 

 Cliadband, glancing over the table, "from bread in various 

 forms, from butter which is churned from the milk which is 

 yielded unto us by the cow, from the eggs which are laid by 

 the fowl, from ham, from tongue, from sausage, and from such 

 like? It is. Then let us partake of the good things which are 



set before us ! " 



Bleak House. Chaeles Dickens. 



Chemistry of Food 



JjOTH plants and animals grow and at the same time their 

 tissues waste away. To supply the material for growth and 

 to replace matter which has wasted away and been excreted 

 the eating of food is necessary. " II faut manger pour vivre," 

 as one of Moliere's characters in L'Avare says. We have dealt 

 with the food of plants in Chapters IV, V, and VI, and now 

 we deal with the food of animals, which is far more varied 

 than that of plants. 



The food of animals, at any rate of the greater percentage, 

 consists of certain chemical compounds : 



1. Proteins. 



2. Carbohydrates. 



3. Fats. 



4. Water. 



5. Salts. 



6. Vitamins. 



Of these, the first three are organic in their origin, the 

 fourth and fifth are inorganic. I am not quite sure whether 

 the sixth and last are foods, but they are essential for normal 



