THE STORY OP OUR FOODS 25 



consume more meat than others. The British 

 nation has been credited with a larger consumption 

 of meat food than that represented in any other 

 people. At the same time it must not be forgotten 

 that, with the exception of those who dwell in the 

 extreme north, every nation consumes a fair amount 

 of vegetable matter, and the quantity of meat con- 

 sumed cannot, save under exceptional circumstances, 

 be regarded as excessive. Further, meat is not by 

 any means to be despised as a body-building food, 

 seeing that, although it is an expensive diet, at the 

 same time a little meat contains a large amount of 

 body-building substance, and above all forms an 

 easily digested food. Indeed, one of the strongest 

 arguments against a purely vegetarian diet is found 

 in the facts : first, that such a diet is apt to be in- 

 digestible ; and second, that a far less proportion of 

 nutritive substance is absorbed from a purely vege- 

 tarian diet than from a mixed dietary in which 

 meats and vegetable foods are both represented. 



EXPERIMENTS IN FEEDING AND WORK. It is 

 always interesting to trace the history of scientific 

 discovery and to note the manner in which definite 

 conclusions regarding any special subject have been 

 arrived at and formulated. The main principles 

 of the science of foods and feeding having been 

 detailed, it is on these latter grounds important that 

 we should become aware of the manner in which 

 it was demonstrated that whilst the nitrogenous 

 foods are to be regarded as body-builders the non- 

 nitrogenous foods starches and sugars fall to he 

 considered the sources of our energy or working- 

 power. In the days of Baron Liebig, the famous 

 chemist, foods were classified as "body-builders" 

 (or tissue-formers), and "heat-producers." The 



