134 THE ORIGIN OF CREATION. 



is next morning. Much lesser ordeals than these, however, 

 suffice to make one miserable, and out of sorts. 



How necessary is it, therefore, that we should strive to know 

 the nature of our bodies, and of the food we eat. 



Half the ailments that people are troubled with, could easily 

 be avoided, if a little more attention were paid to the kind of 

 food required, the time of eating it, the quality of each kind 

 actually necessary, and the manner in which it is eaten. 



Prof. Lyon Playfair has two excellent articles on " The Nature 

 and Composition of Food" in " Good Words," 1865, which we 

 propose to discuss ; but while he gives an immense fund of 

 useful and practical information, he yet admits that neither he 

 nor any other chemist, can explain the working of the mineral 

 matter which we are obliged to take in our food, and how it is 

 we cannot digest anything, or even exist without it. 



Liebig, he tells us, classses all food into three divisions : (1) 

 Flesh formers. (2), Heat givers. (3), Mineral ingredients. 

 Many philosophers object to this classification, but Playfair 

 insists on supporting and upholding it. We, however, object 

 to it on much the same grounds as his opponents, viz., that 

 flesh could neither be formed, nor heat given, without a mixture 

 of at least two of the classes. If moreover, he knows nothing 

 about the working of one of the divisions, his opinion about 

 the other two are not much to be relied on, because like all 

 other chemical actions, the atoms must work in unison. Play- 

 fair again contradicts himself from his own " Table of Food, " 

 for he says : " The Esquimaux live on heat givers principally." 

 Yet we find that some of the greatest heat givers are vegetable 

 substances, such as sugar, rice, flour, and oatmeal, but the 

 Esquimaux does not eat them, he prefers, or rather is compelled 



