FOOD. 



Ml 



flesh, MM! asked, ' It it not true that we we composed of the same 

 substance* which serve M our nourishment ? ' In fact the simplicity 

 of this view is now generally acknowledged ; and albumen, gluten, 

 catein, Ac., are now recognised as flesh-formers in the same tense that 

 any animal aliment is. 



" The old mode of estimating the value of dietaries, by merely 

 giving the total number of ounces of solid food used daily or weekly, 

 and quite irrespective of its composition, was shown to be quite 

 erroneous ; and an instance was given of an agricultural labourer in 

 Gloucestershire, who in the year of the potato famine subsisted 

 chiefly on flour, consuming 163 ounces weekly, which contained 20 

 ounces of flesh-formers. When potatoes cheapened he returned to a 

 potato diet, and now eats 321 ounces weekly, although his true 

 nutriment in Sean-formers wan only about 8 or 10 ounces. He 

 showed this further by calling attention to the six pauper dietaries I 

 formerly recommended, to the difference between the salt and fresh 

 meat dietary of the sailor, Ac., all of which, relying on absolute ! 

 weight alone, had in reality no relation in equivalent nutritive value. ' 



" Taking the soldier and sailor as illustrating healthy adult men, 

 they consumed weekly about 35 ounces of flesh-formers, 70 to 74 

 ounces of carbon, the relation of the carbon in the flesh-formers to 

 that of the heat-givers being 1:3. If the dietaries of the aged were 

 contrasted with this it would be found that they consumed less flesh- 



formers (25 30 ounces), but rather more heat-giver* (72 78 ounces) ; 

 the relation of the carbon in the former to that of the latter being 

 about 1 : S. The young boy about 10 or 12 years of age consumed 

 about 17 ounces weekly, or about half the flesh-formers of the adult 

 man ; the carbon being about 58 ounce* weekly, and the relations of 

 the two carbons being nearly 1 : 5.J. The circumstances under which 

 persons are placed influence these proportions considerably. In 

 workhouses and prisons the warmth renders less necessary a large 

 | amount of food fuel to the body; while the relative amount of 

 labour determines the greater or less amount of flesh-formers. 

 Accordingly it is observed that the latter are increased to the 

 prisoners exposed to hard labour. From the quantity of flesh- 

 formers in food we may estimate approximately the rate of change 

 in the body. Now, a man weighing 140 Ibs. has about 4 llw. of 

 flesh in blood, 27 Jibs, in his muscular substance, &c., and about 

 5 Ibs. of nitrogenous matter in the bones. These 37 Ibs. would be 

 received in food in about eighteen weeks ; or, in other words, that 

 period might represent the time required for the change of the tissues, 

 if all changed with equal rapidity, which is however not at all probable. 

 "All the carbon taken as food is not burned in the body, port 

 of it being excreted with the waste matter. Supposing the respira- 

 tions to be 18 per minute a man expires about S'5'3 ounces of carbon 

 daily, the remainder of the carbon appearing iu the excreted matter." 



E.camplet of Dittarie*. 



