NUTRITIVE VALUE OF FOOD. 



401 



investigators, amongst whom Boussingault ranks foremost,* have 

 more especially directed their attention to the amount of these 

 matters contained in the food. As vegetable food commonly con- 

 tains only very small quantities of other nitrogenous matters besides 

 the albuminates, it was thought that the nitrogen they contained 

 would afford a proximate measure of the value of these matters 

 in reference to the reproduction of the tissues, and, therefore, to 

 one of the most important parts of the metamorphosis of matter. 

 Besides Boussingault, Thomson,t and more especially Schloss- 

 herger J and Horsford, in part under the direction of Liebig, have 

 made tolerably extended investigations in relation to this subject. 

 Liebig has, moreover, suggested the institution of very complete 

 investigations in reference to the other classes of nutrient matters, 

 with a view of determining the quantity of the carbo-hydrates or 

 starch and of salts contained in a number of different articles of food ; 

 Horsford and Krocker || have made the most admirable observa- 

 tions in respect to this point. As the numbers obtained in these 

 inquiries are of the highest importance to nutrition in more than 

 one point of view, although it is not possible to give a comprehen- 

 sive list of them, we are induced contrary to our usual custom, to 

 give the fundamental values found by these different observers. 

 100 parts of the thoroughly dried substances yielded the following 

 results : 



* Economic rurale. Paris, 1844, p. 483. 

 f Phil. Mag. 1843. Vol. 23, p. 323. 



t Ann. d. Ch. u. Pharm., Bd. 52, S. 106-120, and Arch. f. physiol. Heilk. 

 Bd. 5, S. 17-28. 



Ann. d. Ch. u. Pharm. Bd. 58, S. 1C6-212. 



|J Ibid. p. 212-227. 



VOL. III. 2 D 



