346 STUDIES IN LIFE AND_ SENSE, 



observation demonstrates that we daily consume large quantities 

 of the starches and sugars in our food. A potato, for instance, 

 may legitimately enough be described as a mass of starch and 

 water ; rice and allied substances are three-fourths starch ; from 

 bread we obtain a large quantity of starchy matter : all vegetables, 

 in fact, contain starch in considerable proportions. Of the various 

 "sugars," chemically so called, the latter remark practically holds 

 good. Even milk nature's typical food contains a proportion 

 of sugar in the form of sugar of milk, or lactine ; and in the 

 muscles of animals another peculiar "sugar" is found. There can 

 be little doubt that from sugars and starches we obtain matters 

 which, in the economy of the body, are readily converted into fat. 

 If Professor Caudal should ever elect to "try Banting," he will 

 require to cut short his supply of starches and sugars as well as 

 his daily quota of fats and oils ; but the contingency of such an 

 exercise of professorial self-denial is too humiliating to contem- 

 plate, even in the light of a theoretical possibility. That which 

 happens to the geese of Alsace may be regarded as being illus- 

 trated in the human economy likewise. Morning and night, maize 

 is crammed down the throat of the unfortunate bird, which starts 

 on the experiment in a lean and meagre condition. Cramped up 

 within a narrow space, no exercise is permitted the goose, which 

 in about a month is killed, as the process of breathing becomes 

 well-nigh impossible. The liver alone then weighs between one and 

 two pounds, and the amount of fat which escapes from the tissues 

 of the animal when it is roasted is almost incredible. Persoz of 

 Strasburg, utilising the foie gras production as a physiological 

 experiment, showed that the fattening of the goose is really due 

 to the formation of fat from the starches and sugars of the maize 

 on which it is fed. Thus the formation of fat, and probably also the 

 production of heat, are the functions served within our bodies by 

 the digestion of the starches and sugars we find in our food. 



The differences between the food of the plant and that of the 

 animal between the nutriment of my fern and of myself may 

 now be appreciated. We see that whilst the plant is able, as already 

 remarked, to build up its tissues from lifeless materials, the animal 

 requires in addition a supply of organised or living matter. At 

 Smith's table, besides the water and minerals we require, and in 

 addition to the oxygen gas we respire in the air obtained from the 

 atmosphere, we shall ingest "nitrogenous" matters derived from 

 the animal and plant worlds. In the meats offered to us, we find 

 " ready-made " foods, so to speak, which correspond more or less 

 exactly in composition to our own flesh. The vegetable matters 

 will supply us with similar materials, and in addition the starches, 

 sugars, and fats will be purveyed us by both animal and plant 



