141 



FOOD. 



stomach during digestion. When combined with gluten, it is suscep- 

 tible of fermentation, and b undergoing the panary fermentation 

 forms bread, one of the most important articles of food in civilised 

 life. As this is ordinarily managed, some portion of the flour is made 

 to yield up a certain amount of its oarbon ; but the precise nature of 

 the change which the flour undergoes during this action is not clearly 

 understood. The digestibility of the flour is however greatly increased 

 by this process ; and by various admixtures, chiefly of common salt, 

 the taste is improved. [BREAD.] 



Starch exists largely in plants, but more abundantly in some parts 

 than others : such as many seeds, particularly of the cereal grains, rice, 

 barley, maize, and millet, in which it occurs in great purity ; in wheat 

 along with gluten ; with saccharine matter in oats, and some legu- 

 minous seeds ; with a viscid mucilage in potatoes, rye, and Windsor 

 beans, and occasionally with an acrid principle, which can generally 

 be dissipated by heat, as for example the Jatropha Manihot, which 

 yields tapioca. Though seeds and roota yielding starch in abundance 

 are all comprehended under the term farinaceous, there are essential 

 differences between them according to the principles with which it is 

 associated, which cause them to differ in their digestibility, and con- 

 sequently in their eligibility and suitableness for different ages and 

 individuals. Flour, starch, arrow-root, cassada-flour, or tapioca, salep, 

 sago, and other similar preparations, are all merely varieties of the 

 same principle. Starch is not only highly nutritive, but one of the 

 blandest and most wholesome articles of diet, capable, in due propor- 

 tion, of being used for the food of tender infants, and not improper at 

 any subsequent period of life, though during youth and manhood it 

 requires other principles to be taken along with it. 



Oilt and fat, however much unlike in some respects to the other 

 principles arranged under this head, are formed out of precisely the 

 same constituent elements ; and during digestion the stomach brings 

 even the most apparently dissimilar into a degree of relationship more 

 intimate than might have been anticipated. The chief difference be- 

 tween them and the alimentary substances already mentioned, is in 

 their greater proportion of hydrogen. Sugar and starch are both 

 susceptible of fermentation, during which a portion of carbon is re- 

 moved from each by combining with oxygen and escaping in the form 

 of carbonic acid gas : from starch in the early stages of fermentation, 

 during which a portion of carbon is taken which brings it to the 

 state of sugar ; from which again a proportion of carbon and of 

 oxygen is taken, and alcohol produced, the hydrogen remaining un- 

 diminished in quantity : and as alcohol is merely an oleaginous body 

 of a weak kind, the analogy is complete ; for all farinaceous and 

 saccharine alimenta undergo changes in the digestive organs before 

 they can be assimilated in the system, similar to what occurs in fer- 

 mentation, namely, being converted into oil. [DIGESTION.] 



Oils are insoluble in water, and therefore, though highly nutritive, 

 they are not available for the support of the body till their immis- 

 cibility with water has been overcome. Hence they are apt to 

 oppress the stomach during the early stages of digestion, if taken 

 alone without being mingled with substances which facilitate their 

 union with water. When this is accomplished they are very readily 

 assimilated, as, according to Dr. Prout, " albuminous and oleaginous 

 principles may be considered already fitted for the purposes of the 

 animal economy without undergoing any essential change in their 

 composition." 



Oils are either fluid or concrete, and both forms occur in the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms, though in the latter they are most 

 generally fluid. 



Arid* are present in many vegetable substances which affect the 

 digestive organs in various ways, though they may not contribute 

 directly to the nourishment of the system. 



III. Alimentary principles which do not contain carbon. 



Wnttr is the only one of these which it is necessary to notice. This 

 is essential to the existence of all organised beings in whatever way it 

 is introduced into their tissues. Not only is it introduced by human 

 beings in the state of common water, and many beverages of which 

 the chief part is water, but our ordinary articles of animal food con- 

 tain, on an average, 75 per cent, of water, and only 25 per cent. 

 <>f nutritive matter; and many of our vegetables contain a still larger 

 proportion. 



Such are the chief principles employed by man in a state of civili- 

 sation for his subsistence. But it is not enough that a sufficient 

 ity of one or more of these be swallowed. The function of 

 ion must be called into action to enable the crude materials to 

 be assimilated. This is partly excited by the mere presence of a sub- 

 stance in the stomach, but more effectually when that substance is in 

 itself of a stimulating quality, nr is accompanied by certain accessories 

 <M.;d during the preparation of the food or at meal-times. 

 Such accessories are termed condiments, which either make the food 

 more grateful, or exercise a beneficial influence over the stomach during 

 the process of digestion. The desire to eat is rarely so great when 

 insipid food is offered to an individual as when savoury viands are 

 presented. The very odour or aroma of these excites the salivary 

 glands to more abundant secretion of saliva, which is a preparation 

 of the food about to lie taken. Though the mere 

 application of heat in the process of cooking developes an aroma from 

 substances which were previously devoid of it, either by altering 





FOOD. 143 



the chemical composition of the material, or by volatilising a prin- 

 ciple latent in the substance, yet many adventitious articles are used 

 to assist in increasing or modifying this odour, or to correct certain 

 qualities in particular kinds of food which are either disagreeable or 

 injurious. Respecting the. most common of these a few words may be 

 allowed. That condiment which is of most universal requirement and 

 utility is salt, or chloride of sodium. It is the only one which is in- 

 dispensable, for not only does it exist in the milk which forms the 

 earliest nutriment of the infant, but at all subsequent periods of life 

 it is needed. Independently of the part which this compound per- 

 forms in the stomach during digestion, it is still further serviceable in 

 the blood, and more so in the blood of man than of any other being, 

 as Berzelius has remarked that the blood of man contains three times 

 more hydrochlorates than that of the ox. Besides, the use of salt 

 greatly benefits the alimentary canal and hinders the generation of 

 worms. [AXTHELMINTICS.] It is one of the most ready means of 

 rendering insipid food acceptable to the palate, as is noticed in one of 

 the earliest compositions that have come down to us. " Can that 

 which is unsavoury be eaten without salt ? " (Job vi. 6.) Perhaps 

 the next most important condiment is vinegar, which, like most 

 vegetable acids, when taken in moderation, greatly assists in pro- 

 moting the digestion of young meats of a gelatinous kind, such 

 as veal. 



Mustard and pepper of different kinds, are also useful, and more so 

 in warm than cold countries, as they rouse the languid stomach, and 

 enable it to effect the digestion of the food. Hot pickles, from con- 

 taming vinegar at the same time, are often advantageous when used in 

 moderation, but the abuse of such articles produces many serious 

 effects, particularly obstruction of the liver, with its long tram of dis- 

 orders. The use of spices and aromatic agents not only renders the 

 food more pleasant but enables the stomach to bear a larger quantity. 

 Hence they are too often made the means of leading the gourmand to 

 be guilty of excess ; and that cook is often most prized who can most 

 cunningly minister to the pampered appetite. This is perverting 

 cookery, a highly proper and commendable art, from its legitimate end. 

 " In the hands of an expert cook, alimentary substances are made 

 almost entirely to change then- nature, their form, consistence, odour, 

 savour, chemical composition, &c. ; every thing is so modified that it 

 is often impossible for the most exquisite sense of taste to recognise 

 the substance which makes up the bases of certain dishes. The 

 greatest utility of the kitchen consists in making the food agreeable to 

 the senses, and rendering it easy of digestion. But its perfection 

 seldom stops here : frequently among people advanced in civilisation 

 the object to which it aspires is to excite the appetite, to appease 

 capricious palates, or to satisfy luxurious vanity. Then, far from 

 cookery being a useful art, it becomes a real pestilence, carrying with 

 it a train of diseases, and not unfrequently the premature death of 

 many of its infatuated votaries." (Majendie's ' Physiology.') [MiLK ; 

 WATEK; WINK.] 



A few remarks are appended to serve as a guide in the use of food 

 and to avoid errors. " Though man is omnivorous, and can subsist 

 on either animal or vegetable food an arrangement which fits him to 

 dwell in any part of the habitable globe, yet he is subject with 

 regard to the actual material of his diet, in a remarkable manner, to 

 the influence of climate, since a particular kind of aliment, which is 

 very appropriate in one country is improper in another ; thus, as we 

 advance from the equator towards the poles, the necessity for animal 

 food, or its equivalent in a highly nitrogenous class of vegetables, 

 becomes greater, till, in the very north, it is the sole article of subsist- 

 ence, except a few cruciferous plants, especially cochlearia or scurvy- 

 grass, abounding in nitrogen. Animal food, from containing nitrogen, 

 is more stimulating, and, therefore, less suitable for hot climates, 

 where, on the contrary, saccharine, mucilaginous, and starchy materials 

 are preferred ; hence, in the zone of the tropics, we find produced in 

 abundance, rice, maize, millet, sago, salep, arrow-root, potatoes, bread- 

 fruit, banana, and other watery and mucilaginous fruits. Quitting 

 this zone, we enter that which produces wheat, and here, where the 

 temperature is lower, we find united with the starch of this grain that 

 peculiar vegetable principle (gluten) possessing all the properties of animal 

 matter, and yielding nitrogen and ammonia by its decomposition. 

 Thus, by a gradual and insensible transition, nature furnishes to man 

 the food which is most appropriate for him in each region. In the 

 subtropical zone vegetable diet is still preferred, but, in chemical 

 composition, the favourite articles approximate animal substances. 

 Tlu's holds also in the temperate zone, not only in respect of wheat, 

 but also in the chesnut, which is almost the sole means of subsistence 

 in some of the mountainous regions of France, Italy, and Spain, 

 though instead of the gluten of wheat, this seed contains albumen, the 

 relation of which to animal food is even closer than that of gluten. 

 In reviewing the geographical distribution of the cereal grains, we find 

 that starch nearly pure is produced in the greatest abundance in the 

 hottest parts of the world, particularly in rice and maize ; it becomes 

 associated in the subtropical regions with an equivalent for animal 

 food ; and in still colder regions, where wheat fails, oats and barley 

 take its place. These, though possessed of less gluten than wheat, are, 

 nevertheless more heating, and therefore, better calculated for 

 northern latitudes. The inhabitants of Scotland and Lapland, with 

 their oaten and barley or rye bread, are thus as thoroughly provided 



