414 NUTRITION. 



ever, resorbed by the intestine in sufficient quantities for the 

 requirements of respiration, and it is moreover worthy of notice, 

 that very nearly as much carbon is introduced into the body in 

 equal periods of time by starch as by the absorbed sugar. (For 5-26 

 parts of starch and 5*62 parts of sugar which are resorbed in one 

 hour, both contain about 2 37 of carbon.) 



The very important question here presents itself, as to what 

 changes are impressed upon the blood in consequence of the absorp- 

 tion of different nutrient matters ; this being undoubtedly the first 

 step we ought to take if we would enter upon the investiga- 

 tion of the nutrition of the animal body. Yet notwithstand- 

 ing the efforts of numerous ^admirable investigators, we are 

 still very imperfectly acquainted with the most important points 

 of this inquiry. We have already referred to the influence which 

 nutrition in general or digestion exerts on the physical and chemical 

 characters of the blood (see vol. ii, p. 261). Very few special investi- 

 gations, deserving of notice, were made in reference to the influence 

 of different kinds of food on the constitution of the blood before 

 those of H. Nasse,* with which we may associate an observation of 

 Verdeil t on the ash of the blood of one and the same dog, which 

 had been fed both on animal and vegetable diet. The relative 

 quantity of chloride of sodium was in both cases nearly the same 

 (50) ; after the dog had been fed upon animal food the ash con- 

 tained more sulphuric and phosphoric acids, and considerably more 

 soda and oxide of iron, but somewhat less potash, and very 

 much less magnesia than after a vegetable diet. Boussingault J 

 was as little able as Bouchardat and Sandras to discover that fatty 

 food had any decided influence on the amount of fat in the blood 

 of dogs. 



Notwithstanding the numerous experiments which have been 

 made by Nasse, the number of constant results which they have 

 yielded is relatively very small, in consequence of the great fluctu- 

 ations which were observed in the constitution of the blood ; these 

 results reduce themselves to the following points : after a meat 

 diet the blood-corpuscles in the dog exhibit a greater capacity 

 for sinking; the blood itself presents a darker colour, which becomes 

 whitish after the abundant use of fat; the coagulation occurs some- 

 what more rapidly than on a vegetable diet ; a continuous animal 



* Ueber den Einfluss der Nalirung auf das Blut. Leipzig, 1850. 



t Ann. d. Ch. u. Pharm. Bd. 69, S. 89-99. 



t Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. 3 S&'., T. 24, p. 4GO-4G4. 



