NECESSARY QUANTITY AND VAEIETY OF FOOD. 125 



elusive diet of bread, fresh meat, and butter, with coffee and 

 water for drink, we have found that the entire quantity of 

 food required during twenty-four hours by a man in full 

 health and taking free exercise in the open air, is as follows : 



Meat ................................. 16 ounces, or I'OO Ib. avoirdupois. 



Bread ................................ 19 " " 1-19 " " 



Butter or fat .......................... 3$ " " 0'22 " " 



Water ................................ 52 fluid oz. " 3-38 " " 



That is to say, rather less than two and a half pounds of solid 

 food, and rather over three pints of liquid food." 1 



Bearing in mind the great variations in the nutritive de- 

 mands of the system in different persons, it may be stated, in 

 general terms, that in an adult male, from ten to twelve 

 ounces of carbon, and from four to five ounces of nitrogen- 

 ized matter (estimated dry) are discharged from the organ- 

 ism, and must be replaced by the ingesta ; and this demands 

 a daily consumption of from two to three pounds of solid 

 food ; the quantity of food depending, of course, greatly on 

 its proportion of solid, nutritive principles. 2 



It is undoubtedly true that the daily ration has frequent- 

 ly been diminished considerably below the physiological 

 standard in charitable institutions, prisons, etc. ; but when 

 there is complete inactivity of body and mind, this pro- 

 duces no other effect than that of slightly diminishing the 

 weight and strength. The system then becomes reduced 

 without any actual disease, and there is simply a diminished 

 capacity for labor. But in the alimentation of large bodies 



. dt. 



2 The correspondence between the absolute quantities of nitrogen and carbon 

 contained in the excretions, and their proportions in the food necessary to sus- 

 tain the system, is truly remarkable. In elaborating this idea Payen (op. cit., p. 

 488) has prepared a table giving the proportions of nitrogen, carbon, fatty mat- 

 ter, and water in a hundred different articles, comprising nearly all the important 

 varieties of food. This table is of great value as showing the nutritive power of 

 different articles entering into the dietaries of armies, charitable institutions, etc., 

 when the quantity of food for a large number of persons must be regulated by 

 some fixed standard. 



