116 FOOD. 



man it is natural to have them both associated in the alimentary ma- 

 terials. They occur together in most vegetable substances, and there is 

 a natural desire for them both, as elements of the food. 



They are not, however, when alone, or even associated with each 

 other, sufficient for the nutrition of the animal body. Magendie found 

 that dogs, fed exclusively on starch or sugar, perished after a short 

 time with symptoms of profound disturbance of the nutritive functions. 

 An exclusive diet of butter or lard had a similar effect. The animal 

 became exceedingly debilitated, though without much emaciation; and 

 after death, all the internal organs and tissues were found infiltrated 

 with oil. Boussingault 1 performed a similar experiment, with a like 

 result, upon a duck, which was kept upon an exclusive regimen of butter. 

 "The duck received 90 to 100 grammes of butter every day. At the 

 end of three weeks it died of inanition. The butter oozed from every 

 part of its body. The feathers looked as though they had been steeped 

 in melted butter, and the body exhaled an unwholesome odor like that 

 of butyric acid." 



Lehinann was led to the same result by experiments performed upon 

 himself for the purpose of ascertaining the effect produced on the urine 

 by different kinds of food. 2 This observer confined himself first to a 

 purely animal diet for three weeks, afterward to a purely vegetable one 

 for sixteen days, without any marked inconvenience. He then put him- 

 self upon a regimen consisting entirely of non-nitrogenous substances, 

 starch, sugar, gum, and oil, but was only able to continue this diet for 

 two, or at most for three days, owing to the disturbance of the general 

 health which supervened. The unpleasant symptoms, however, imme- 

 diately disappeared on his return to an ordinary mixed diet. In some 

 instances a restricted diet of this kind can be borne for a longer time. 

 Dr. Parkes 3 kept two soldiers upon non-nitrogenous food alone for five 

 consecutive days without their exhibiting serious signs of physical ex- 

 haustion. Prof. Wm. A. Hammond, 4 in experiments performed upon 

 himself, was enabled to live for ten days on a diet of boiled starch and 

 water. After the third day, however, the general health began to 

 deteriorate, and became much disturbed before the termination of the 

 experiment. The prominent symptoms were debility, headache, pyrosis, 

 and palpitation. After the starchy diet was abandoned, it required 

 some days to restore the health to its usual condition. 



Nitrogenous Ingredients of the Food. 



The nitrogenous or albuminous nutritive principles enter so largely 

 into the constitution of the animal tissues and fluids, that their import- 

 ance, as elements of the food, is easily understood. No food can be 



1 Chimie Agricole. Paris, 1854, p. 166. 



2 Journal fur praktische Chemie, Band xxvii. p. 257. 



3 Proceedings of the Koyal Society of London, March 2d, 1871. 



4 Experimental Eesearches, being the Prize Essay of the American Medical 

 Association for 1857. 



